Funding Baltic Sea ecosystem research
The Baltic Sea catchment area is surrounded by natural beauty and abundant resources of the Sea and surrounding lands. Recent EU policy frameworks, such as the Marine Environment Strategy Directive (MESD), have now made protecting this area an international priority. The EU-funded 'Multilateral call for research projects within the Joint Baltic Sea Research Programme BONUS+' (BONUS+) project aimed to create a transnational research programme to sustainably manage Baltic Sea ecosystems. This builds on the success of the 'Baltic Organisations Network for Funding Science' (BONUS) project, which ended in 2006. BONUS+ offered research funding for projects on a range of topics covering ecosystem sustainability and management, all of which were aligned with the MESD. The managing committee received a large number of high-quality applications via a custom-built web portal. At an average of EUR 1.4 million per project, EUR 22 million in funding was granted by BONUS+. The winning projects mostly focused on the natural sciences, with a few social science and economics projects making up the remainder. Several thousand scientists were involved in these BONUS+ projects. The ultimate outcome of the BONUS+ projects is a wealth of policy changes and recommendations for ecosystem management. The funding has also enhanced transnational collaboration in this area, as well as improved public awareness of current science in the area.