"The Objective of the programme is to establish an international research consortium for promoting and developing research into Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) technologies that supports the sustainable development of aquaculture worldwide. To achieve this it is necessary to establish an international consortium of research scientists that can direct their individual expertise toward achieving the common goal of commercial IMTA. The group will exchange knowledge with and up-skill other groups to ensure that whilst each group retains control of their research specialties, all partner groups have access to the existing core knowledge related to IMTA and can contribute to defining the research requirements within this field. The exchange programme has been carefully designed to identify the key knowledge gaps in each institution, to facilitate knowledge transfer between institutions and to develop new focused and co-ordinated international research initiatives. This programme will last for a period of three years, covering a framework of staff exchange activities including training for early stage researchers, collaborative research, and knowledge transfer by senior scientists. Workshops and training courses will be conducted during the course of this project, which will facilitate group discussions, communications with regulatory authorities and industry, training of farmers and strategic research planning."