Fish-x Program Overview

Shifts in consumer tastes and expectations require a change in culture away from an inwardly conservative mindset towards an externally connected approach. To learn how to drive this cultural change, FRDC initiated the Fish-X Project. 

Fish-X was a three-year research project to explore whether new venture creation methods utilising Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Agile Methodologies can be applied to build innovation capability and drive cultural change in the fisheries, aquaculture, seafood, and recreational fishing sector, extending upon existing R&D investments. The objective was to shift the industry towards an externally connected, entrepreneurial approach, better able to collaborate, to create sustainable and scalable business models. 

The Fisheries, Aquaculture and Seafood innovation ecosystem within Australia has been ignited by this project. In 2016, the project team observed that there was no coordinated ‘startup’ activity happening in ‘BlueTech’ (technology solving real problems for Australia’s Blue Economy). This project has put Australia on the global map, introducing a number of Fish-X participants with connections both at home and overseas.