What if stock assessment is as simple as a linear model? The a4a initiative

This manuscript discusses the benefits of having a stock assessment model that is intuitively close to a linear model. It creates a case for the need of such models taking into account the increase in data availability and the expansion of stock assessment requests. We explore ideas around the assessment of large numbers of stocks and the need to make stock assessment easier to run and more intuitive, so that more scientists from diverse backgrounds can be involved. We show, as an example, the model developed under the European Commission Joint Research Center’s ‘Assessment for All’ Initiative (a4a) and how it fits the a4a strategy of making stock assessment simpler and accessible to a wider group of scientists.