Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to bring to your attention:

• The EU Missions Info Days (18-19 January) (link below) and
• The EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters Horizon Europe open calls (Deadline : 12 April, 2022)

EU Missions Info Days (18-19 January):

The upcoming EU Missions Info Days (18-19 January) will be streamed via the following link (no registration is needed):

https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/events/upcoming-events/horizon-europe-info-days/eu-missions_en

*Kindly note that Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters will be presented on 18 January between 09.45 and 12.45 CET. On the same day, between 15.40 and 17.35 CET an interesting session on “preparing and submitting a successful proposal” is also foreseen.

OPEN CALLS >> EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters Horizon Europe :

Kindly find below relevant information regarding 12 open Horizon Europe calls related to the EU Mission Restore Our Ocean and Waters, launched under the EU’s programming period 2021-2027 :

Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters will pursue ambitious objectives to tackle the most pressing issues faced by our Oceans and Seas:

1. Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, in line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 ;
2. Prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas, and waters, in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil ;
3. Make the sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular, in line with the proposed European Climate Law and the holistic vision enshrined in the Sustainable Blue Economy Strategy.

The Mission will constitute a joint effort between the EU, its Member States and its partner countries, including funding provided by EU funds and national contributions. For the upscaling and replication in the second phase, additional national, regional and private funding will be mobilised.

Kindly find key details on the 12 open calls via the link below :

https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-search;callCode=null;freeTextSearchKeyword=;matchWholeText=true;typeCodes=1;statusCodes=31094501,31094502;programmePeriod=2021%20-%202027;programCcm2Id=43108390;programDivisionCode=null;focusAreaCode=null;destination=null;mission=43650612;geographicalZonesCode=null;programmeDivisionProspect=null;startDateLte=null;startDateGte=null;crossCuttingPriorityCode=null;cpvCode=null;performanceOfDelivery=null;sortQuery=sortStatus;orderBy=asc;onlyTenders=false;topicListKey=topicSearchTablePageState

The deadline for applications is 12 April, 2022.

*The following open calls may be of particular interest to Black Sea stakeholders :

1. Danube river basin lighthouse – restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems
2. European Blue Parks
3. Underlying models for the European Digital Twin Ocean
4. Danube river basin lighthouse – coordination activities
5. The relation of young generations with the sea and water: values, expectations, and engagement
6. Piloting citizen science in marine and freshwater domains

Eligibility criteria regarding the calls are described here in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes.

Finally, kindly find via this link the Implementation Plan of Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters.

Best regards, and we remain at your disposal.

GreenComp is a reference framework for sustainability competences. It provides a common ground to learners and guidance to educators, advancing a consensual definition of what sustainability as a competence entails.

It responds to the growing need for people to improve and develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes to live, work and act in a sustainable manner. It is designed to support education and training programmes for lifelong learning. It is written for all learners, irrespective of their age and their education level and in any learning setting – formal, non-formal and informal.

Take your time and read the full report here!

We hereby invite you to participate at the Online Questionnaire for the Project CulTourE4Youth - Supporting youth entrepreneurship in cultural tourism for coastal communities. 

If you are a citizen of or live/work in Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Republic of Turkey or Ukraine, your feedback is critical, as we strive to gather inputs about the priorities, opportunities and challenges from culture and tourism sectors in your countries.

Building on the notion that cultural tourism with maritime dimension is an up-and-coming blue growth generator, the project will provide background information and analysis on how youth entrepreneurship is promoted by existing policies and initiatives, and how can it be better supported to address local and regional challenges, such as youth unemployment and brain drain. 

The Questionnaire aims to gather direct input about the priorities, opportunities and challenges from all involved stakeholders in the sectors of culture and tourism. 

Two Mission Area actions under the Horizon Europe Missions work programme Search for available translations of the preceding are now open for application. 

The actions relate to the adaptation to climate change and healthy oceans, seas and waters mission areas. 

The Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ will restore marine and fresh water ecosystems and biodiversity, prevent and eliminate pollution from ocean, seas and waters, create a sustainable, carbon-neutral and circular Blue Economy. Furthermore, they will develop digital systems that will be used to generate models for a European Digital Twin Ocean and engage and mobilise citizens, especially young generations.

The Mission ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’ will support regions and communities in their journey to adapt to climate change, including the development of risk assessments, pathways and demonstrators of large scale innovative systemic solutions that are economically suitable.

The deadline to submit a proposal is 12 April 2022 17:00:00 Brussels time.

Visit the CINEA page for more information on specific topics!

International Centre for Black Sea Studies just published a paper on Exploiting Tourism 4.0 potentials for the Black Sea as part of the Tourism 4.0 for the Black Sea (T4BS) Project, co-funded by the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF).

The Tourism 4.0 initiative aims to unlock the innovation potential of tourism by enabling collaboration between all stakeholders of the smart tourism ecosystem to co-create enriched experiences with the help of the key enabling technologies from Industry 4.0 . The basic idea is to ensure that the visitors actually respect local inhabitants and preserve environmental balance.

Please find more information on the project's web page

EMD 2022, the annual EU meeting point on maritime affairs and sustainable blue growth, and the place where ‘Ocean Leaders Meet’, will take place in Ravenna, Italy on 19 & 20 May 2022. As every year, this will not be the only action to celebrate our seas and oceans. EMD In My Country 2022 events will also take place all over Europe from 1 April till 31 October 2022.  

In 2021, EMD In My Country - despite the pandemic - was a great success, with 232 virtual, physical and hybrid events, organised in 25 countries (21 EU and 4 non-EU countries), covering all the sea basins of the EU making an absolute record in the history of the European Maritime Day! 

Are you ready to submit your event(s) for 2022?

Fill in the application form before 31 January 2022 and bring European Maritime Day 2022 to your country.  

All the organisers will receive sustainable #EMD In My Country-branded gadgets and their events will be promoted via the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries' information channels. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over, EMD In My Country 2022 will include physical, virtual and hybrid events that will take place from 1 April to 31 October 2022. 

2022 will be the European Year of Youth, so we welcome plenty of events with a focus on youth activities. 

Submit your application

Deadline: 31 January 2022. 

BRIDGE-BS is launching a novel Blue Growth Ph.D. program, with dual supervision, for the first time, from both the Black Sea and Western Europe institutions. This Ph.D. program will also ensure the transfer of expertise and knowledge between regions, serving as incubators and ideas for future start-ups. It will not only create mobility and enhance the capacity of the Black Sea Ph.D. candidates in Blue Growth but will also provide the best relations between universities and research centers from the Black Sea with similar organizations in Europe.

BRIDGE-BS offers Ph.D. research positions directly supported by the BRIDGE-BS consortium for 3 years (36 months). BRIDGE-BS partners in the Black Sea offer Ph.D. positions at their institutions.

You can find information about current Ph.D. positions and application requirements under BRIDGES in the document on the button below. Please apply to the vacancies by sending your application to bridgebs@ims.metu.edu.tr within the given deadlines. Please be aware that there are different deadlines for different institutions

For more details read here and for application details click this link! 

Dont lose the third Newsletter of CONNECT Black Sea project, implementing the SRIA - boosting the Blue Growth in the region!

You can find the Newsletter here and you can subscribe to receive Black Sea CONNECT's newsletters in this link!

Enjoy reading!

The updated version of the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin Programme 2021-2027 was published for public consultation on the Programme website at the following link: https://blacksea-cbc.net/public-consultation-on-the-updated-version-of-the-interreg-next-black-sea-basin-programme-2021-2027/

There have been accommodated the suggestions received from the Programme partners during the previous consultation process in September – October 2021, which brought added value to the draft Programme. The document also includes the indicative financial allocations of the Programme and the horizontal aspects which will be tackled during the 2021-2027 programming period. Following this last round of consultation, the final version of the Programme will be presented for the approval of the Joint Programming Committee.

All interested bodies and persons are invited to send suggestions aimed at improving the document to the following email address: blacksea-cbc@mlpda.ro, by 31st of January 2022.

Tourism Institute published two articles in famous Georgian media outlets.

The one, “Batumelebi”, is the prominent online media in Adjara region and the another, BM.GE, is one of the best business oriented media in Georgia. The published content aimed at raising the awareness of the project T4BS in Georgia.

Articles explained the digital tools and reasoning behind the T4BS. It showed that the project aimed at assessing coastal tourism not only from the angle of economic indicators, but also analyzing environmental, social and cultural aspects of life by employing digital tools and big data. It depicted that normal practice of tourism assessment from the economic point of view prevents holistic evaluation of tourism sustainable development in Georgia. That is why the TIM - Slovenian model of tourism impact evaluation is in the process of implementation in the country. This will help Georgia to know where the destination stands on sustainability point of view and where is the right path to go in the future.

At the end articles promoted the high level forum on “Tourism, Digitalisation and Sustainable development for the Black Sea” which took place on the 18th of November 2021 in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The European Commission has approved an investment package of more than €290 million for 132 new projects under the LIFE programme for the Environment and Climate Action.

This EU funding under LIFE will mobilise a total investment of €562 million, with actions happening in almost all EU Member States. The new LIFE projects will help Europe become  a climate-neutral continent by 2050, put Europe’s biodiversity on the path of recovery by 2030, and contribute to the EU green recovery post-Covid-19.

Find out more in the press release and in the descriptions of all the new LIFE projects.

On 11 November, #worldfisheriesDay, The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean launched a campaign that will run throughout 2022 aiming at illustrating the Mediterranean and the Black Sea fishers and fish workers involved in making small-scale fisheries more sustainable.

Called 9 topics , 9 features, the series will explore what each topic of the Regional Plan of Action for Small-Scale Fisheries in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea (RPOA-SSF) means in practice to small-scale fishers across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and proposes to readers a deep dive into the human context of sustainability.

In 9 chapters, the plan of action details a set of specific, prescriptive and concrete actions: it’s a vehicle to the future which will set small-scale fisheries on a path to long-term environmental, economic and social sustainability around the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. 

With inspiring examples from the ground, 9 topics, 9 features brings to life fishers, fish workers and projects.

Two topics were already launched : Breaking free of traditional value chain and Redressing the gender balance.

Stay tuned for more in 2022, declared International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (IYAFA 2022) by the United Nations.