FEAP Award for Excellence in European Aquaculture

The fifth presentation was made of the FEAP Award for Excellence in European Aquaculture at the Federation’s Annual meeting, which was held in Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands. This award is made annually to a person who has excelled in their contribution to the development of European aquaculture and is proudly sponsored by Schering-Plough Animal Health Aquaculture.

This year, the award was presented to Professor Randolph Richards who played a major role in the emerging aquaculture industry in Scotland, being Veterinary Adviser from 1989 to a succession of key industry associations, including the Scottish Salmon Growers’ Association, Scottish Quality Salmon and the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation.

He has been an active member of a number of joint government/industry working groups and has contributed to the development of industry codes of practice, the Scottish Framework for sustainable Aquaculture and the Scottish Aquaculture Bill.He has played a key role in the development and management of the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, which has made a major contribution to global aquaculture.  Under his leadership, the Institute’s international reputation in both research and postgraduate teaching has developed enormously.

Professor Richards’ own reputation is recognised by his membership of the UK research Assessment Exercise panel for 2008 and of the international panel of Norway’s Research Council Centres of Excellence Scheme since 2001.

As a leading fish disease specialist, he has coordinated large EU research programmes on fish diseases and is currently the UK representative of a tri-nation research forum investigating a key salmon disease.

He is also a Facilitator in the area of Fish Health and Welfare in the recently formed European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform, which informs the EU of industrial research priorities.

He has been recognised by the farming community with the award of the Fellowship of the Royal Agricultural Societies and last year received a prestigious award at the Aquaculture Today conference for his outstanding contribution to Aquaculture.

He is currently a director of the internationally renowned Moredun Research Institute at Edinburgh, which carries out wide-ranging research into animal diseases.

Professor Richards has contributed to wider discussions on fisheries and veterinary matters and was a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Inquiry into the Future of the Scottish Fishing Industry (2004) and the UK’s Veterinary Products Committee (which licences all animal medicines) for more than eight years. During this period, the Committee oversaw the development of medicines which helped control the potentially devastating problem of sea lice infestation.

Much of the research required for licensing these products and the development of vaccines controlling both bacterial and viral disease were carried out by Professor Richards and his colleagues at IoA, Stirling and Machrihanish.

In June 2008, upon the announcement Professor Richards would stand down as  Director of the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling, Professor Randolph Richards, was given the significant honour of being appointed CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in tribute to outstanding achievement and service across the community and the nation as a whole and in recognition of his services to veterinary science.