Despite its role as a key socio- economic driver, salmon farming continues to be a controversial topic with public opposition and conflicts challenging the sustainability of the sector. From a societal perspective, the seemingly intractable challenge centres around gaining acceptance of aquaculture as a complementary valued activity along with other more established uses of the coastal and marine environment. As a result, a deeper understanding of public perceptions and multi-scalar factors influencing opinions becomes critical for developing sustainable and socially acceptable aquaculture. In this presentation, we discuss the findings from a seven-year research project (www.coastalfutures.ca) focused on gaining a better understanding of societal needs for the sector in a manner that potentially contributes to global opportunities of aquaculture to be realized . Organized around five sub-modules, we focus our interdisciplinary expertise on acquiring knowledge on perceptions of social licence and how these may be influenced by occupational health and safety, aquaculture-community dynamics, socio-ecological finfish carrying capacity and the role of communities in marine spatial planning . Our path-breaking approach to aquaculture development – which requires both scientific excellence and social responsibility – highlight a range of factors and linkages that need to be integrated if companies, regulators, communities and other stakeholders are to better understand how societally-endorsed sustainable aquaculture may be achieved.