Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PREP4BLUE (Preparing the Research & Innovation Core for Mission Ocean, Seas & Waters)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-06-01 bis 2023-11-30
Prep4Blue (P4B hereafter) is part of the Mission Ocean, seas and waters (Mission hereafter).
The objective of the Mission is to restore the health of our ocean, seas and waters by 2030, with three measurable specific goals: 1) to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, 2) to prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters and 3) to make the Blue Economy sustainable, carbon neutral and circular. This Mission requires support from society, and strong socio-economic adaptations that take into consideration sustainable growth prospects of the Blue Economy. To engage Research and Innovation (R&I) as a key catalyst for achieving such a challenge, a new direction must be taken, towards participatory governance of this Mission.
P4B’s overarching objective is to develop the R&I modalities required to achieve the Mission objectives (MO hereafter) and to facilitate a successful first phase. P4B outcomes will allow the Mission Lighthouses (LHs) to develop and pilot innovation of all forms: technological, social, business models and governance; with an emphasis on the methodologies that will allow co-design and co-implementation of solutions with citizens and stakeholders. The PREP4BLUE Specific Objectives are:
1) To ensure that all EC, international, national and regional initiatives are aligned and complement each other to achieve the Mission objectives.
2) To develop guidelines for a strong, innovative and attractive communication and dissemination strategy for the Mission that will contribute to stakeholders and citizen engagement.
3) To ensure active citizen participation in the co-design and co-implementation of the Mission R&I core activities.
4) To support effective knowledge management to help ensure high potential knowledge/solutions are identified and effectively transferred to target end-users for uptake/application in support of the Mission.
5) To support the creation of an enabling environment from a regulatory and economic perspective, enabling private / public investments needed in future projects.
6) To develop effective measures and models for impactful stakeholder engagement to co-develop and co-implement the scale-up of innovative solutions leading to the achievement of the Mission objectives.
P4B is designed to lay the foundations and foster a streamlined approach to efficiently and collectively help achieve the Mission goals. The project aims to deliver a series of tools, guidelines, methodologies and recommendations, which will interlink, leverage and optimise activities among the projects funded under the Mission. Our systemic approach will foster cohesion and connectivity between knowledge and technology, funding, regulation, education and skills, social structures and co-creation with R&I actors, citizens and stakeholders.
The objective of the Mission is to restore the health of our ocean, seas and waters by 2030, with three measurable specific goals: 1) to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, 2) to prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters and 3) to make the Blue Economy sustainable, carbon neutral and circular. This Mission requires support from society, and strong socio-economic adaptations that take into consideration sustainable growth prospects of the Blue Economy. To engage Research and Innovation (R&I) as a key catalyst for achieving such a challenge, a new direction must be taken, towards participatory governance of this Mission.
P4B’s overarching objective is to develop the R&I modalities required to achieve the Mission objectives (MO hereafter) and to facilitate a successful first phase. P4B outcomes will allow the Mission Lighthouses (LHs) to develop and pilot innovation of all forms: technological, social, business models and governance; with an emphasis on the methodologies that will allow co-design and co-implementation of solutions with citizens and stakeholders. The PREP4BLUE Specific Objectives are:
1) To ensure that all EC, international, national and regional initiatives are aligned and complement each other to achieve the Mission objectives.
2) To develop guidelines for a strong, innovative and attractive communication and dissemination strategy for the Mission that will contribute to stakeholders and citizen engagement.
3) To ensure active citizen participation in the co-design and co-implementation of the Mission R&I core activities.
4) To support effective knowledge management to help ensure high potential knowledge/solutions are identified and effectively transferred to target end-users for uptake/application in support of the Mission.
5) To support the creation of an enabling environment from a regulatory and economic perspective, enabling private / public investments needed in future projects.
6) To develop effective measures and models for impactful stakeholder engagement to co-develop and co-implement the scale-up of innovative solutions leading to the achievement of the Mission objectives.
P4B is designed to lay the foundations and foster a streamlined approach to efficiently and collectively help achieve the Mission goals. The project aims to deliver a series of tools, guidelines, methodologies and recommendations, which will interlink, leverage and optimise activities among the projects funded under the Mission. Our systemic approach will foster cohesion and connectivity between knowledge and technology, funding, regulation, education and skills, social structures and co-creation with R&I actors, citizens and stakeholders.
Numerous activities have already been implemented and others will follow. A robust and coherent network of coordination among the 4 LH CSAs and the MIP Ocean has been established allowing for the preparation of the effective deployment of the Mission. P4B has been acting as a linking agent within the fast-evolving Mission landscape.
The project is contributing to better understand the Mission context with desktop studies and benchmark overviews on the regulatory and economic perspectives needed for the successful deployment of the Mission. These have been followed by various workshops with policy makers, regional representatives, project partners, etc. to verify, confirm and addon the information.
To better understand the EU agenda needs in terms of stakeholders’ engagements a desktop study has been carried out on the Mission and the Cluster 6 topics of the programmes 2021-2022 and 2023-2024. This study has been augmented by empiric and scientific knowledge of the partners and a workshop dedicated to stakeholder engagement. This resulted in the Mission Stakeholder engagement guidelines and the online toolkit hosted on wavelinks.eu. More specifically, regarding the citizen engagement, P4B partners have organised several activities dedicated to citizen engagement for the Mission. They developed a Citizen engagement toolkit, as well as a series of webinars on how to involve citizens. An extensive overview of existing citizen science initiatives across Europe has been completed and the database is available on wavelinks.eu. The knowledge management aspect of P4B has been a core activity that groups the expertise of our partners. Manual and AI assisted knowledge collection is ongoing and a tested methodology is used to identify and upscale existing solutions contributing to the MO.
Lastly, ongoing activities are aiming at promoting the Mission Charter and engaging as much as possible in a regional scale to assist the political buy in of member states. P4B partners also assisted the Mission communication strategy by developing both a unique immersive webpage to introduce the Mission to the broader public and a dedicated space to help train other Mission Projects on the use of multimedia communication tools (Digital Academy).
The project is contributing to better understand the Mission context with desktop studies and benchmark overviews on the regulatory and economic perspectives needed for the successful deployment of the Mission. These have been followed by various workshops with policy makers, regional representatives, project partners, etc. to verify, confirm and addon the information.
To better understand the EU agenda needs in terms of stakeholders’ engagements a desktop study has been carried out on the Mission and the Cluster 6 topics of the programmes 2021-2022 and 2023-2024. This study has been augmented by empiric and scientific knowledge of the partners and a workshop dedicated to stakeholder engagement. This resulted in the Mission Stakeholder engagement guidelines and the online toolkit hosted on wavelinks.eu. More specifically, regarding the citizen engagement, P4B partners have organised several activities dedicated to citizen engagement for the Mission. They developed a Citizen engagement toolkit, as well as a series of webinars on how to involve citizens. An extensive overview of existing citizen science initiatives across Europe has been completed and the database is available on wavelinks.eu. The knowledge management aspect of P4B has been a core activity that groups the expertise of our partners. Manual and AI assisted knowledge collection is ongoing and a tested methodology is used to identify and upscale existing solutions contributing to the MO.
Lastly, ongoing activities are aiming at promoting the Mission Charter and engaging as much as possible in a regional scale to assist the political buy in of member states. P4B partners also assisted the Mission communication strategy by developing both a unique immersive webpage to introduce the Mission to the broader public and a dedicated space to help train other Mission Projects on the use of multimedia communication tools (Digital Academy).
PREP4BLUE has 4 key expected outcomes which are as follows:
• Enhanced preparation for an effective deployment of the Mission R&I core in the Member States and Associated countries and communities: improved capacity to identify areas and solutions for effective ‘LH demonstrators’ and improved capacity to identify solutions for scale ups, …
• Transformative and systemic portfolio approach to solutions addressing the challenges which the ocean, seas and waters are facing, fostering collective social responsibility and demonstrating implementation of ecosystem-based management.
• Increased awareness of stakeholders and citizens about the MO, programmes and tools and about the possibilities for their contribution to the mission, as well as improved access of stakeholders (scientific community, businesses, local and regional communities, NGOs and others) to programmes and instruments supporting restoration, conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, seas and waters.
• Full and early uptake and support of the mission by the governments of the Member States and Associated countries, regional and local communities, scientific community, businesses and other stakeholders and citizens.
• Enhanced preparation for an effective deployment of the Mission R&I core in the Member States and Associated countries and communities: improved capacity to identify areas and solutions for effective ‘LH demonstrators’ and improved capacity to identify solutions for scale ups, …
• Transformative and systemic portfolio approach to solutions addressing the challenges which the ocean, seas and waters are facing, fostering collective social responsibility and demonstrating implementation of ecosystem-based management.
• Increased awareness of stakeholders and citizens about the MO, programmes and tools and about the possibilities for their contribution to the mission, as well as improved access of stakeholders (scientific community, businesses, local and regional communities, NGOs and others) to programmes and instruments supporting restoration, conservation and sustainable use of the ocean, seas and waters.
• Full and early uptake and support of the mission by the governments of the Member States and Associated countries, regional and local communities, scientific community, businesses and other stakeholders and citizens.