Seven scoping workshops have been supported/facilitated for the already approved joint actions "Ecosystem goods and services", "Cumulative effects of human activities", "Integrated Assessment of new pollutants" and "Munitions in the sea" and for the two new actions "Underwater noise" and "Research in support to MSFD". At these workshops the state of the art, as well as, gaps in the research domain were discussed. The outcomes of these workshops are a position paper or roadmap for each of the joint action which also includes what type of activity should be developed in the frame of JPI. For the action "Integrated Assessment of new pollutants" the next step being a knowledge hub has also been supported. For the other actions the further step needs to be decided by the JPI Oceans Management Board.
A workshop was held in Brest in October 2016, with research performing organisations (ocean observation technicians), the metrology institutes and some industry representatives to support the joint action in the field of observation equipment intercalibration.
A colloqium on the action Marine Spatial Planning was supported which was organised in Venice in 2019.
Procedures for the evaluation and monitoring of policy and structuring actions of JPI Oceans have been developed and these procedures have been applied to two actions "Intercalibration exercise for the WFD" and "Microplastics in the sea".
In order to further develop and maintain fruitful relationships, ensuring connectivity, visibility and exploiting synergies, between JPI Oceans and the different relevant actors in the field of marine and maritime sciences several interactions/engagements has taken place during the course of the project. Visits have been organised to JPI Oceans member countries in order to improve understanding of JPI Oceans and help mobilise in-country support at national levels. The countries visited were France, Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Bulgaria. Several meetings also took place with other P2P initiatives (BONUS, MarTERA, COFASP, MarinBiotechnology, JPI Climate, FACCE, HDHL) to look at possible synergies and develop common activities such as the knowledge hub on food and nutrition security or the joint call Oceans & climate.
To raise awareness of JPI Oceans and to explore areas of mutual interest partners of the project also participated in several meetings of RPO organisations such as EUROGOOS, European Marine Board or EuroMarine.
In order to increase the participation of private partners into JPI Oceans joint actions a background analysis of engagement methodologies and tools and a screening of JPI Oceans Actions to explore feasibility of this interaction have been performed. Specific suggestions have been developed on what JPI Oceans can offer to industry so as to get their engagement and interest, looking also at innovative solutions for ensuring continuous private stakeholders’ involvement. Two workshops as part of the side events for the European Maritime Day was organised. The aim was to encourage experts from different industries to break the “silo mentality” and to identify cross-cutting technology-related challenges, exchange good practice and propose appropriate PPP-based activities to address them.
The 'JPI Oceans International Statement' was developed which sets out in detail the rationale and principles of why JPI Oceans should engage internationally, the objectives and modalities. Direct engagements took place with international partners in bilateral context with countries such as US, Canada, Brazil, India, New Zealand and others and in multilateral context with organisations such as G7, IOC (UNESCO), Belmont Forum.
CSA Oceans 2 partners organised three joint forward-looking seminars. One with the OECD entitled “The Future of the Maritime Economy”, held in Brussels on 4 October 2016 as well as a future-oriented JPI Oceans Management Board and Strategic Advisory Board workshop the following day. Based on the seminar and workshop concrete proposals for thematic foresights were developed. A workshop on “Future innovative and autonomous technologies to manage human impacts and support blue growth on coastal and regional seas” was organised in Toulon in February 2018 and in March 2018 a Back-casting foresight exercise to support the identification of mission-oriented actions.
An Information Management System for JPI Oceans was developed. This new information management system is a database with the actions and projects categorized according to the strategic areas of the Strategic Research Agenda. Most importantly, a new search tool allows users to refine the list of actions based on their required criteria.
Four briefings were organised: a side-event at the 22nd Session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) (2016), a side event to the UN Ocean conference in New York titled "Multilateral Science-Policy Partnerships: Generating the Evidence to Underpin SDG Implementation" (2017), several lectures for the broad public on plastics in the sea (2018) and a specific briefing during the opening of the new JPI offices (2018).
The 2nd JPI Conference was organised in Lisbon on 26 October 2017 and a seminar on 19 January 2019.
