This insight brief captures the learnings from the knowledge exchange session held at the Asia–Africa BlueTech Superhighway (AABS) inception workshop, hosted by WorldFish from 9-12 October 2023, in Penang, Malaysia. The inception workshop brought together over 70 experts and scientists from 27 collaborators, partners and potential partners in participatory discussions to give shape to Phase 1 of AABS (2023-2027) to be implemented in Bangladesh, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania.