Interim Report of the Working Group on SOCIAL Indicators (WGSOCIAL)

The first meeting of the Working Group on Social Indicators (WGSOCIAL), chaired by Lisa L. Colburn (USA) and Amber Himes-Cornell (USA), was held at the ICES Secre-tariat in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 25–29 June 2018. The meeting was attended in-person by 14 participants from eight countries with an additional six participants from four countries attending via webinar. The overarching objective of WGSOCIAL is to improve the integration of social sciences in ICES Ecosystem Overviews and Integrated Ecosystem Assessments (IEAs) through the development of culturally relevant social indicators.This report reviews WGSOCIAL first meeting since the formation of the group in March 2018. The primary focus and outcome of the June 2018 meeting was the devel-opment of a work plan for the current 3-year ToRs period that maps out expected work products to be completed and tasks to be accomplished between annual meetings.WGSOCIAL will be focusing on a number of specific tasks to be accomplished prior to the next meeting in 2019, including:1. Establish identity as WGSOCIAL;2. Map the current social science work in ICES and identify future needs for social science in ICES (in discussion with other ICES groups);3. Map best practices and current work of relevance for the scope of the WGSOCIAL. A preliminary assessment of peer-reviewed literature on social in-dicators has been carried out. The results will be updated throughout the 3-year ToRs period.4. Assess the available data and information regarding culturally relevant social indicators and community data for selected ICES Member Countries (UK, France, Italy, Spain) and draft a procedure that could be followed to collect data from other countries;5. Start identifying methodological frameworks and tools to develop indicators from qualitative data;6. Gather theoretical and empirical information on approaches and methods for integration of culturally important, economic and ecological dimensions in fish-eries management;7. Conduct a preliminary review of the contributions of social sciences to fisheries management or ecosystem-based fisheries management;8. Determine social research and data needs to support the implementation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy and the institutional objectives of ICES;9. Identify and map other networks/organizations dealing with marine social sci-ence working on integration of human dimensions in IEAs;10. Link with other relevant ICES expert groups and identify the role of WGSOCIAL within the proposed implementation of IEA Cycle for ICES and actors.