Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
CORDIScovery podcast 50th episode CORDIScovery podcast 50th episode
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas ( from the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential

Objective

Environmental policies focus on protecting habitats valuable for their biodiversity, as well as producing energy in cleaner ways. The establishment of Marine Protected Area (MPA) networks and installing Offshore Wind Farms (OWF) are important ways to achieve these goals. The protection and management of marine biodiversity has focused on placing MPAs in areas important for biodiversity. This has proved successful within the MPAs, but had little impact beyond their boundaries. In the highly populated Mediterranean and the Black Seas, bordered by many range states, the declaration of extensive MPAs is unlikely at present, so limiting the bearing of protection. The establishment of MPAs networks can cope with this obstacle but, to be effective, such networks must be based on solid scientific knowledge and properly managed (not merely “paper parks”). OWF, meanwhile, must be placed where the winds are suitable for producing power, but they should not have any significant impact on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, or on human activities. The project will have two main themes:
1 - identify prospective networks of existing or potential MPAs in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas, shifting from a local perspective (centred on single MPAs) to the regional level (network of MPAs) and finally the basin scale (network of networks). The identification of the physical and biological connections among MPAs will elucidate the patterns and processes of biodiversity distribution. Measures to improve protection schemes will be suggested, based on maintaining effective exchanges (biological and hydrological) between protected areas. The national coastal focus of existing MPAs will be widened to both off shore and deep sea habitats, incorporating them into the networks through examination of current legislation, to find legal solutions to set up transboundary MPAs.
2 - explore where OWF might be established, producing an enriched wind atlas both for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. OWF locations will avoid too sensitive habitats but the possibility for them to act as stepping-stones through MPAs, without interfering much with human activities, will be evaluated.
Socioeconomic studies employing ecosystem services valuation methods to develop sustainable approaches for both MPA and OWF development will also be carried out, to complement the ecological and technological parts of the project, so as to provide guidelines to design, manage and monitor networks of MPAs and OWF. Two pilot projects (one in the Mediterranean Sea and one in the Black Sea) will test in the field the assumptions of theoretical approaches, based on previous knowledge, to find emerging properties in what we already know, in the light of the needs of the project. The project covers many countries and involves researchers across a vast array of subjects, in order to achieve a much-needed holistic approach to environmental protection. It will help to integrate the Mediterranean and Black Seas scientific communities through intense collective activities, combined with strong communications with stakeholders and the public at large. Consequently, the project will create a permanent network of excellent researchers (with cross fertilization and further capacity building) that will also work together also in the future, making their expertise available to their countries and to the European Union.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-OCEAN-2011
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-IP-SICA - Large-scale integrating project for specific cooperation actions dedicated to international cooperation partner countries(SICA)

Coordinator

CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE
EU contribution
€ 1 351 795,79
Address
PIAZZALE ALDO MORO 7
00185 Roma
Italy

See on map
Region
Centro (IT) Lazio Roma
Activity type
Research Organisations
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.
No data

Participants (39)

Share this page Share this page on social networks

Download Download the content of the page

Last update: 11 December 2017

My Booklet

Permalink: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/287844

European Union, 2025

My booklet 0 0