From 15 to 18 September 2026, the Annual Science Conference (ASC) of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) took place in Brest, France. Maria E. Pierce co-convened a Session on participatory modelling together with Claire Marcher, IFREMER and Benjamin Planque, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.
The session inlcuded 15 presentations and 3 Posters which showcased the diversity of participatory modelling approaches currently used in marine science, with examples from fisheries management, coastal restoration, environmental quality, marine spatial planning, offshore wind development, commons management, and climate-related change. The presented processes involved fishers, fisher representatives, managers, scientists, citizens, local communities, and other stakeholders.
Across the contributions, participatory modelling emerged both as a way to improve models by making stakeholder knowledge, assumptions, uncertainty, and interpretation more explicit, and as a process for knowledge sharing, social learning, and collective exploration of management options. The session underlined the relevance of participatory modelling for ICES and its potential to support more transparent and useful modelling processes in scientific advice.