Final Report Summary - BONUS (Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BONUS) undertaken by several Member States with the participation of the Union) The Decision 862/2010/EU of the European Parliament and Council established the legal basis for the joint Baltic Sea research and development (R&D) programme (BONUS). The decision divides the programme into two phases, the strategic phase of 18 months and implementation phase of 5 years. The strategic phase prepared the implementation phase. It dealt with the strategic development of the programme to ensure that an optimal integration of Baltic Sea research can be achieved. It sought to strengthen the involvement of stakeholders and user groups to ensure that the research is relevant to policy and management, and that the prioritisation of research themes is driven by policy needs and the full involvement of scientists and their respective research institutions as well as the broad stakeholder communities shall be actively sought. The strategic phase had three objectives: 1) fostering the integration of research across socio-economic sectors and groups of actors; 2) developing programme's strategic research agenda (SRA); and 3) developing programme's implementation modalities. The first objective focused on work with stakeholders. It included a comprehensive analysis of BONUS' stakeholders, setting up a group of BONUS advocates to work on the national level in all eight BONUS countries, setting up BONUS forum to include the decision makers into the programme, work of the BONUS advisory board as well as broadening the funding basis of the programme. Within the second objective, BONUS strategic research agenda for a policy-driven programme was developed for years 2011 - 2017. The agenda was agreed upon in consultation among the participating states, a broad range of stakeholders and the European Commission (EC). The research focus was broadened to embody, in addition to the marine ecosystem, a basin-wide approach that addresses the key issues affecting the quality and productivity of the Baltic Sea region ecosystems. Altogether 19 themes for the future calls for proposals were defined on the basis of the analysis of the existing knowledge and gaps. Within the third objective are all the necessary mechanisms and tools to handle all management issues needed efficiently, transparently and in a legally correct way. This included developing: 1) a set of model agreements between BONUS EEIG, national funders, BONUS beneficiaries and infrastructure owners; 2) guidelines for applicants, proposal evaluators and project participants; 3) electronic proposal and project management tools; and 4) financial structure, reporting and audit systems. Project context and objectives: BONUS enhances the Baltic Sea region's research capacity to underpin the development and implementation of 'fit-for-purpose' regulations, policies and management practices, to respond effectively to the major environmental and key societal challenges the region faces and will face in the coming years and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Baltic Sea region's fragmented environmental research programming and approach by integrating well the research activities in the Baltic Sea system into a durable, cooperative, interdisciplinary and focused multi-national programme to support the region's sustainable development. It enhances our understanding and predictive capacity about the Baltic Sea system's response to impending changes caused by both natural and human-induced pressures and about linkages between environmental problems and the social and economic dynamics in responding to them. In turn, it forms the basis for prudent management aimed at safeguarding the sustainable use of the ecosystem's goods and services, in line with the objectives of the European Union (EU) maritime policy and its environmental pillar, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. BONUS also contributes to the establishment and structuring of the European Research Area (ERA) in the Baltic Sea region. The consecutive phases of the development of the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme BONUS have been / will be BONUS ERANET during 2003 - 2008 was a joint project by 12 research funding and coordinating agencies around the Baltic to develop preconditions for a joint Baltic Sea research programme. Recognition of the obstacles still hampering the integration of Baltic Sea research was the background for the work done within the BONUS ERANET and the following establishment of the BONUS EEIG. The main achievements of the ERANET were: - creating a consortium of the major research funding agencies in the nine Baltic Sea countries; - developing and agreeing about the administrative framework and procedures for the management of a jointly funded research programme; - developing and agreeing about the BONUS-169 science plan and implementation strategy, wide consultation within the science community and stakeholders; - starting the process for creating conditions for a durable funding co-operation within the framework of Article 185 (former 169); - establishing a new dedicated legal entity, Baltic organisations' network for funding science EEIG, and its secretariat. BONUS+ in 2007 was a joint call to test the mechanisms of collaboration among the national funding institutions. Out of initial 149 letters of interest submitted to the call, 16 projects with total funding of EUR 22 million were selected to be funded. Two thirds of this funding was allocated by national funding agencies and one third by the EC. A total of over 100 research institutes and universities participated in the BONUS+ programme in 2009 - 2011. The benefits of such coordinated research efforts were clearly seen after the completion of the implementation of these projects in late 2011. The projects have made dozens of suggestions and modifications to Baltic Sea related policy documents and action plans. Also, remarkable added value was created by the joint use of research infrastructures. The experience gained during the BONUS+ call showed that some of the national research funding institutions currently integrated into the BONUS EEIG were not set up to support the entire width of the Baltic Sea system research (e.g. coasts and / or fisheries). During the strategic phase, ways were sought to solve this problem by involving additional funding agencies into the EEIG, integrating competitive and non-competitive funding, and encouraging broadening the specialties of some funding agencies. This project, BONUS strategic phase during 2010 - 2012, developed programme's implementation modalities, strategic research agenda and stakeholder platforms for the full implementation of the programme during 2011 - 2016. BONUS implementation phase 2011 - 2016 will be composed of four main priorities: The first priority aims at setting up and implementing a Baltic Sea system research programme by opening competitive calls for proposals and funding projects of high excellence and relevance. The first call is planned to be opened in 2012. The second priority focuses on facilitating the cooperation of Baltic Sea system researchers and integration of research programmes. BONUS will be a centre of variety of specific support actions: organising conferences and workshops, facilitating communication and information exchange as well as fostering common use of research infrastructures. The third priority focuses on the young generation and aims at carrying out strategies to strengthen human capacity building in interdisciplinary science and science-based management. Based on the achievements during the strategic phase, the fourth priority aims at establishing smooth links between scientists, policy makers and knowledge users. BONUS will make the Baltic Sea system research more applicable for real-life solutions, and policy making more based on scientific knowledge. The development of the joint Baltic Sea system research programme has already had an integrating effect on marine research policies and funding in the Baltic Sea. It will not achieve its ambitious goals that benefit the society if it does not effectively accommodate the individual needs of the participating countries. Project results: Objective 1: Foster the integration of research across socio-economic sectors and groups of actors This objective was addressed by WP 2 (Stakeholder platforms) and WP5 (Communication and dissemination) and was be completed on month 18 of the project. The aim of the integration was to broaden the range of the participating funding agencies (programme owners) by involving them as the new BONUS EEIG members and / or donors of funding for the calls for research proposals. At the beginning, a comprehensive analysis about the stakeholder concept and mapping of international. European, regional, national and local stakeholders was made. National ministries involved in the governance of the Baltic Sea issues and other involved stakeholders were invited to establish a forum of sector research - BONUS forum - to discuss the programme's potential and the emerging research needs from the decision making perspective. In the future, the BONUS dorum will also be the tool for advancing the pan-Baltic integration of research done with the non-competitive funding and involving the use and planning of joint infrastructures. The EU strategy for Baltic Sea region has created a natural platform for stakeholder communications for BONUS and initial steps to benefit from this mutually shared stakeholder platform were taken when the seocnd BONUS forum was organised back to back with the EUSBSR annual conference. Because of the varying governance situations in each Baltic Sea country, the integrated stakeholder approach was developed on a case-by-case basis and tailored to national needs. Instrumental in this work was the BONUS national advocate network, which consisted of persons familiar with the country's marine / maritime governance and the research and technological development (RTD) system. The advocate's key role was to advance the creation of the BONUS stakeholder platforms on the national settings. With the aim of broadening the thematic coverage and the funding base of BONUS, collaboration with the BSR STARS project, which is a flagship project of the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea region, was initiated. This created a possibility to start preparing calls in the field of innovation and brought altogether five new funding institutions into the collaboration. Results: - Broad and multi level involvement of the stakeholders that are well-informed about the potential of the Baltic Sea system science to improve the quality of life of the citizens in the Baltic Sea countries. - Renewed BONUS EEIG organisational structure by establishing the BONUS forum in order to secure better involvement of the end-users in research generation and utilisation of results. - Start of the funding collaboration in the context of innovation calls. Objective 2: Development of BONUS strategic research agenda (SRA) This objective was addressed by WP3 (Strategic research agenda and the first call). The SRA was developed and agreed upon in consultation among participating states, a broad range of stakeholders and the EC. When developing the SRA, the research focus was broadened to embody, in addition to the marine ecosystem, a basin-wide approach that addresses the key social and economic issues affecting the quality and productivity of the Baltic Sea region ecosystems. The BONUS SRA 2011-2017 includes a description of the baseline and state-of-the-art of the Baltic Sea research, provides a strategic vision and roadmap about how to achieve the stated objectives and set-out indicative policy-driven call topics, their budgets, publication timetable and the expected duration of projects. In addition, it includes measures to address emerging research needs, advance the pan-Baltic integration of research, and includes a joint roadmap for the shared use for the regional infrastructure capacities. It requests a contribution of social sciences in order to address the socio-economic goals of sustainable growth, innovation and social cohesion. In order to understand the function and possible management of the Baltic Sea system and its various parts, it has been necessary to focus on both the overall system as well as on particular thresholds, bottlenecks, and hotspots. The description of research needs followed the DPSIR approach (drivers - pressures, state impact response), which provides a general framework for understanding and visualising the pressures and drivers in and their impact on the Baltic Sea system. Mechanisms for further analysing and ranking pressures, drivers and their impact that have been used successfully within other international integrated programmes (such as land-ocean interactions in the coastal zone (LOICZ) a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) and the International Human Dimensions Programme (IHDP) on global environmental change). The process involved opening of an online poll during summer 2010 that invited suggestions for research themes. Based on the summary of the outcome of the poll, the research needs arising from the policy perspective were discussed during the BONUS forum in October 2010. Thereafter the national BONUS advocates arranged national workshops in order to discuss about national priorities. In spring 2011, strategic orientation workshop (SOW) of three days was organised and involved natural and social scientists and stakeholders. The participants were asked to prepare in advance extended abstracts of their contributions and during the workshop the main activity focused on discussions and less on formal presentations. The discussion of research themes considered those presented in the BONUS science plan and implementation strategy, produced during the BONUS ERANET phase, but also took into account broader, new and emerging research topics. The secretariat prepared a full report of the results and developed or modified existing research themes. The SOWs will later be repeated within the implementation phase in 2013 and 2015. The strategic research agenda, together with its documentation, was discussed with funding agencies, stakeholders, key end-users of the research results, and the EC (DG Research, acting as the coordinator on behalf of all DGs concerned). For the discussion with end-users, a shorter version of the five specific themes of the agenda was produced. The revised agenda was then submitted to the BONUS EEIG steering committee for final approval. An additional item that was discussed with the stakeholders was how they wanted to contribute to the implementing of the research programme, how the final outcome might best be presented and which basic analyses, for example such as dedicated DPSIR, are necessary. Mechanisms considered were newsletters, the internet, databases of researchers according to research specialties (to inquire about more information), easy access to data, special analyses, feasibility studies, popular booklets, presentations at conferences, and targeted meetings for stakeholders. Based on the BONUS SRA, the themes and modalities for the first calls were decided. Results: - Better mechanisms for directing research to respond to societal needs and challenges. - The first SRA that will serve as the basis for the first calls. Objective 3: Develop programme's implementation modalities This objective was addressed by WP 1 (Implementation modalities) and WP 4 (Infrastructure integration) and was completed on month 23 of the project. The implementation modalities included all aspects securing the successful implementation of the strategic research agenda. They were developed, where appropriate, following the rules of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The following were produced: (a) measures (documents, procedures, hiring and training staff) required by the financial regulation for indirect centralised management; (b) formal commitments from participating states amounting to at least EUR 48,75 million among which a maximum of 25 % in the form of an in kind infrastructure contribution; (c) a realistic and evidence-based estimate of the value of the in kind infrastructure contribution of participating states consisting of the use of their infrastructure by BONUS beneficiaries; (d) a list of all infrastructures, including contacts to their owners, operators or other responsible authorities that was published and will be update it whenever necessary; (e) common implementation modalities which were agreed upon and in place for the grant agreements with the BONUS beneficiaries to be concluded centrally by the BONUS EEIG including common and agreed rules for participation, model grant agreement, guidelines for applicants, participants and independent evaluators, and modalities for the audit of beneficiaries, including the possibility for the EC and the Court of Auditors to carry out such audits; (f) appropriate governance structure for the management of the programme in all phases of the project life-cycle; (g) confidence that adequate funding is provided to strengthen the BONUS EEIG in terms of human resources and multidisciplinary expertise in order to enable it to support the strategic aspects as well as the efficient implementation of the programme; (h) financing structure for funding BONUS projects; (i) communication and dissemination strategy which, as far as possible, ensures that the results and data follow the standards of the European Marine Observation and Data Network. With regard to in kind infrastructure contributions, a specific approach and rules were developed during whereby the participating states commit themselves to provide to the BONUS beneficiaries access to and use of infrastructure (notably research ships) free of charge. Costs for the use of such infrastructures are not eligible project costs. In this regard, the BONUS EEIG will conclude relevant agreements with the participating states or the infrastructure owners, which shall: (a) define the methodology for evaluating in kind infrastructure contributions; (b) ensure that the BONUS EEIG, the EC and the Court of Auditors can audit the access to and use of the infrastructure and costs arising from it; (c) stipulate that the contracting parties shall report annually on the costs incurred in providing the access to or use of the infrastructure to the BONUS beneficiaries. Results: - Efficient, transparent and legally correct administrative and financial research programme management. Potential impact: The Baltic Sea and its drainage area form a complex system, both in its bio-physical properties that involve many interconnected pressures, as well as, in its complex policy situation. In the coming decades, global change (including climate change) and long-term as well as long-range influences will probably intensify and thus will put additional external pressures on the Baltic Sea system. Many research activities are taking place in the Baltic Sea region. Marine scientists form a strong core of cooperation, and coastal scientists are now also starting to improve the coordination of their efforts. However, the efforts and mechanisms of cooperation today cover only parts of the Baltic Sea system. Research conducted within universities is disconnected from that of sector research institutes, and there is a distinct difference in research funding between countries. Thus, for many reasons, the specific expertise required to cover all necessary research is not presently available in each Baltic Sea country. To fully use the potential of BONUS, it is necessary to combine existing research efforts and to develop integrated approaches for future projects and analyses. The complex issues in the Baltic Sea system require strong cooperation between environmental, social, and economic scientists in order to fully understand the system and to generate answers that are scientifically first-rate and at the same time relevant to the societal challenges Europe is facing, such as smart growth (especially innovation), sustainable growth (use of natural resources, issues linked with energy and climate change) and inclusive growth (employment issues, social and regional cohesion). In addition, over the past years EU regulations show a paradigm shift from substance and sector based directives to integrated approaches. Examples are the Water Framework Directive, the European maritime policy with its environment pillar, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, as well as the recent developments on marine spatial planning. Furthermore, understanding and predicting global change in the Baltic Sea region requires integrated approaches and integrated research for the Baltic Sea system at several levels. BONUS uses Article 185 (former 169) of the TFEU as the mechanism to combine each country's research funding and to use this combined funding in order to meet the above mentioned challenges and aim to gain a full understanding of the Baltic Sea system in connection with relevant societal options for planning and / or remediation. In particular, involvement of relevant stakeholders by ensuring their participation in shaping of the research agenda and thus becoming interested in exploiting its outcomes, is expected to have a major impact. Article 185 offers a constructive tool to continue and amplify several ongoing programmes of the region, where the needs for a really coordinated and integrated framework are increasingly felt. The development of BONUS will serve as a model of novel research governance to be applied in the European regional seas. The impact has been generated by: - involvement of stakeholders of the policy, and those within sectors and scientific fields having interests in the Baltic Sea system and its wide range of goods and services in the development of the BONUS research agenda, including identification of gaps in knowledge; - expanding the funding sources beyond those strictly from the RTD sources by including those from relevant sectors in the region, such as environment, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport and energy sectors, regional development and spatial planning; - merging of national research programmes into a joint programme and generating critical masses for integrated research and human capacity building; - effective dissemination of the results through promoting the active interests and involvement of stakeholders in the programme; - development of an integrated research plan that can serve as a template for other regional seas in Europe, allowing a strong mechanism for the selection of relevant research themes, while allowing also room for critical emerging issues. List of websites: Address of the project public website: http://www.bonusportal.org Project coordinator: Dr Kaisa Kononen, Executive Director Address: BONUS EEIG, Hakaniemenranta 6, 00530 Helsinki, Finland Related documents Final Report - BONUS (Joint Baltic Sea Research and Development Programme (BONUS) undertaken by several Member States with the participation of the Union)
