Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SOPHIE (Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe (SOPHIE): a Strategic Research Agenda for Europe and Beyond)
Période du rapport: 2018-12-01 au 2020-05-31
The Seas, Oceans and Public Health in Europe project (SOPHIE - https://sophie2020.eu/) has helped to build new research capabilities for the emerging scientific discipline of ‘Oceans and Human Health’.
Humans have interacted with the Ocean since ancient times. We have used it as a means of transportation, recreation, a source of food and raw materials, and more recently to generate renewable energy.
Whilst the ocean can benefit human health and boost wellbeing via activities like recreation and relaxation, it can also pose risks to human health – through factors such as flooding and pollution.
This complicated mix of threats and opportunities interact in ways we don’t fully understand. Exploring these relationships is the basis for Oceans and Human Health research.
Much of this early evidence has been established in the US but far less is known about these issues in other parts of the world, including in Europe, which faces its own set of unique challenges and opportunities.
Funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme, SOPHIE has worked towards understanding the links between oceans and health in Europe. It has nurtured a network of people and organisations interested in the subject, and has explored how marine tourism and citizen science can contribute to this exciting area of research.
SOPHIE has brought together an international team of marine, health, social and economic science expert to work on this project. By including a broad range of interdisciplinary partners from both the marine and health sectors, it has helped to unite disciplines and communities across Europe and the world.
One of the main aims of SOPHIE was to produce a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) https://sophie2020.eu/strategic-research-agenda/for oceans and human health in Europe. An SRA acts like a roadmap; setting out the direction future research should take, and identifying the resources needed from governments to make it happen. The SOPHIE SRA was based on expert and public consultation and identified three areas for future indeterdiscplinary research, both the benefits and opportunities as well as the risks:
- Sustainable seafood for healthy people
- Blue spaces, tourism and wellbeing
- Marine biodiversity, medicine and biotechnology
Issues of funding, equity, sustainability and co-creation with affected communities are essential to the SRA's success and runs throughout the project. To inform the SRA SOPHIE conducted a range of activities - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/ and multiple engagement and dissemination events around oceans and human health - https://sophie2020.eu/news/
• A systematic overview of the current scientific evidence with map;
• A network of people interested in oceans and human health via LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12127491/ ;
• Innovative initiatives which are already reducing risks and promoting benefits;
• Scenarios of what future economic, social and environmental conditions might look like;
• Bespoke citizen science training and skills programmes in Blue Tourism;
Humans have interacted with the Ocean since ancient times. We have used it as a means of transportation, recreation, a source of food and raw materials, and more recently to generate renewable energy.
Whilst the ocean can benefit human health and boost wellbeing via activities like recreation and relaxation, it can also pose risks to human health – through factors such as flooding and pollution.
This complicated mix of threats and opportunities interact in ways we don’t fully understand. Exploring these relationships is the basis for Oceans and Human Health research.
Much of this early evidence has been established in the US but far less is known about these issues in other parts of the world, including in Europe, which faces its own set of unique challenges and opportunities.
Funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme, SOPHIE has worked towards understanding the links between oceans and health in Europe. It has nurtured a network of people and organisations interested in the subject, and has explored how marine tourism and citizen science can contribute to this exciting area of research.
SOPHIE has brought together an international team of marine, health, social and economic science expert to work on this project. By including a broad range of interdisciplinary partners from both the marine and health sectors, it has helped to unite disciplines and communities across Europe and the world.
One of the main aims of SOPHIE was to produce a Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) https://sophie2020.eu/strategic-research-agenda/for oceans and human health in Europe. An SRA acts like a roadmap; setting out the direction future research should take, and identifying the resources needed from governments to make it happen. The SOPHIE SRA was based on expert and public consultation and identified three areas for future indeterdiscplinary research, both the benefits and opportunities as well as the risks:
- Sustainable seafood for healthy people
- Blue spaces, tourism and wellbeing
- Marine biodiversity, medicine and biotechnology
Issues of funding, equity, sustainability and co-creation with affected communities are essential to the SRA's success and runs throughout the project. To inform the SRA SOPHIE conducted a range of activities - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/ and multiple engagement and dissemination events around oceans and human health - https://sophie2020.eu/news/
• A systematic overview of the current scientific evidence with map;
• A network of people interested in oceans and human health via LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12127491/ ;
• Innovative initiatives which are already reducing risks and promoting benefits;
• Scenarios of what future economic, social and environmental conditions might look like;
• Bespoke citizen science training and skills programmes in Blue Tourism;
SOPHIE delivered an Oceans and Human Health Strategic Research Agenda in March 2020 -https://sophie2020.eu/strategic-research-agenda/ .
The SOPHIE Survey collected data from 14 European countries to understand the public’s perceptions and practices around Oceans and Human Health. This survey was one of the biggest investigations of its kind ever conducted -https://sophie2020.eu/resources/survey-report-citizens-health-sea/ .
EU policies relating to Oceans and Human Health were reviewed - https://sophie2020.eu/resources/policy-needs-oceans-human-health/ to understand what is currently being done in the area, and a scoping literature review was preformed and mapped - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/systematic-map/ - to understand what we know; and where the gaps are.
Innovative solutions - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/innovative-solutions/ around Europe were identified that bring the areas of oceans and health together, and scenario modelling - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/future-scenarios/ was conducted to forecast the future of 5 EU marine basins.
Several citizen science pilot projects were developed to provide skills training in Blue Tourism thoughout Europe -https://sophie2020.eu/activities/citizen-science/ .
A growing community of people have been netowrked who are interested in oceans and human health research and practice (www.linkedin.com/groups/12127491).
Multiple stakeholder discussions with diverse publics -https://sophie2020.eu/activities/stakeholder-discussions/ and an expert group contributed to the creation of the Strategic Research Agenda.
All of these activities were very actively disseminated through the SOPHIE website (https://sophie2020.eu) and on social media (https://twitter.com/@OceansHealthEU) activities as well as through participation in scientific conferences and stakeholder meetings.
The SOPHIE Survey collected data from 14 European countries to understand the public’s perceptions and practices around Oceans and Human Health. This survey was one of the biggest investigations of its kind ever conducted -https://sophie2020.eu/resources/survey-report-citizens-health-sea/ .
EU policies relating to Oceans and Human Health were reviewed - https://sophie2020.eu/resources/policy-needs-oceans-human-health/ to understand what is currently being done in the area, and a scoping literature review was preformed and mapped - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/systematic-map/ - to understand what we know; and where the gaps are.
Innovative solutions - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/innovative-solutions/ around Europe were identified that bring the areas of oceans and health together, and scenario modelling - https://sophie2020.eu/activities/future-scenarios/ was conducted to forecast the future of 5 EU marine basins.
Several citizen science pilot projects were developed to provide skills training in Blue Tourism thoughout Europe -https://sophie2020.eu/activities/citizen-science/ .
A growing community of people have been netowrked who are interested in oceans and human health research and practice (www.linkedin.com/groups/12127491).
Multiple stakeholder discussions with diverse publics -https://sophie2020.eu/activities/stakeholder-discussions/ and an expert group contributed to the creation of the Strategic Research Agenda.
All of these activities were very actively disseminated through the SOPHIE website (https://sophie2020.eu) and on social media (https://twitter.com/@OceansHealthEU) activities as well as through participation in scientific conferences and stakeholder meetings.
The evidence gathered in the SOPHIE Project will help to make the interactions between oceans and human health a key priority for research, policy and practice over the coming decades.
To do this, SOPHIE is performed several firsts in this area, from conducting a large multi-country survey, to uniting researchers and practitioners from very different disciplines.
The outcomes of this work will develop understanding of the socio-economic importance of the links between the fields of oceans and health, and will help to safeguard future the future wellbeing and financial prosperity of European citizens.
The unique contribution of Europe in the area of Oceans and Human Health is the emphasis on innovation, opportunities and benefits, not just risks, to the health of both the European Ocean Environment and its citizens.
To do this, SOPHIE is performed several firsts in this area, from conducting a large multi-country survey, to uniting researchers and practitioners from very different disciplines.
The outcomes of this work will develop understanding of the socio-economic importance of the links between the fields of oceans and health, and will help to safeguard future the future wellbeing and financial prosperity of European citizens.
The unique contribution of Europe in the area of Oceans and Human Health is the emphasis on innovation, opportunities and benefits, not just risks, to the health of both the European Ocean Environment and its citizens.