Black Sea CONNECT

The Blue Growth Initiative for Research and Innovation in the Black Sea aims to advance a shared vision for a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable, and better-valued Black Sea by 2030. The initiative will help to deeper connect Black Sea societies through a bridge of new knowledge, technologies and services. The initiative aims to foster human and infrastructure capacity building in coastal, marine, and maritime sectors in view of unlocking unique opportunities for a sustainable and environmentally friendly blue economy in the Black Sea.

In 2017, an Initiative was launched and supported by the European Commission (EC) to develop a joint research and innovation agenda and guide national and EU-level policymakers named as, ‘The Blue Growth Initiative for Research and Innovation in the Black Sea’. As highlighted in the Burgas Vision Paper, this expert working group consisted of experts from Black Sea coastal countries, (Republic of Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Turkey and Ukraine, as well as the Republic of Moldova), in cooperation with marine experts from leading European marine institutes and organisations, with the support of the European Commission. They produced the Burgas Vision Paper the key framework document for a shared vision of a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable and better-valued Black Sea by 2030. The paper was launched during the European Maritime Day 2018 in Burgas, Bulgaria (May 2018). It addresses the key pillars on which a new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) can be built on. This process was further supported by the Ministerial Declaration towards a Common Maritime Agenda (2018) for the Black Sea, endorsed by the same Black Sea countries.

Eight workshops were held by the experts joining the Blue Growth Initiative for Research and Innovation in the Black Sea with the support of the European Commission (EC).  Initially information on both national and international marine research projects were collected and analysed. Secondly, gaps and research and innovation opportunities together with the necessary justification and drivers from each Black Sea country were collated. Thirdly, regional and national boundary and framework conditions for the Research and Innovation needs and opportunities for successful implementation of a SRIA were identified. Based on the data generated and outcomes of these workshops, the experts of the Initiative drafted: i) common vision, ii) challenges, iii) goals of the SRIA. These results were presented in the Burgas Vision Paper.

The matrixes and past project information were analysed and collated into summary graphs to identify needs and gaps. For this, sets of pre-defined area keywords were delivered to the expert group and they were asked to map national/international projects. As a result of this exercise, the different focus of national-funded and EU-funded projects were revealed. For instance, while the national projects mostly focused on biodiversity, pollution, observing and management projects, EU- funded projects targeting Black Sea prioritised more crosscutting frontier areas such as socioeconomics, training, climate change and multiple stressors.

After the launch of the Burgas Vision paper in May 2018, the efforts of the Black Sea Blue Growth Initiative were focused on developing the SRIA goals and actions. The structure of the SRIA was set to pave the path for an effective and realistic implementation of the SRIA, which includes a clear definition of goals, challenges, targets and main actors.