The overall objective of the TASC-RestoreMed programme is to strongly contribute to the Mission Ocean programme “Restore our Seas and Waters by 2030”, forcing a transformative change through the Blue doughnut concept – Phase 2 with: [1] A FSTP programme of 9 million euro supporting 2 types of projects, one type being at the stage of scale-up and deployment of solutions in the Mediterranean Basin and another type on Transition Agendas, being local and regional roadmaps for the Mediterranean Basin to support the solutions scale-up and deployment and legislation development/adaptation for the future. [2] Attracting, engaging and onboarding strong consortia with challenging projects, showing critical mass for scale-up and deployment through an open call organised according to fair, transparent, objective and open principles. [3] Offering technical support measures on relevant topics that suit all projects in TASC-RestoreMed, with a focus on policy/legislation, access to funding and business/impact case and business plan development, realised through feasibility studies, clustering and networking activities, impact assessment, digital tool for funding, access to infrastructure and a variety of more general support activities. All tangible tools developed and used in the programme brought together in RestoreMedTOOLS, for the sake of the programme and for the future. [4] Support Member States/Associated countries national, regional and/or local authorities, as well as all concerned stakeholders, to implement EU legislation related to marine/freshwater ecosystems and reach the biodiversity, pollution and climate targets of the European Green Deal, through Transition Agendas and impact assessments. [5] A vibrant dissemination and communication plan to promote the call for proposals as well as to maximise the visibility of the TASC-RestoreMed programme and the projects within TASC-RestoreMed.

The project is built around the three main pillars of monitoring plastic litter, its collection and valorisation and, of course, the prevention of the distribution of non-degradable plastics. We will do so by strongly building on former projects addressing these topics and by connecting to previously identified major initiatives active in this area. For us, the most promising aspect is the activation and necessary participation of citizens affected by plastic pollution directly on the shorelines. We will guide them to becoming plastic entrepreneurs with a deeply rooted knowledge base and the right tools to start their own businesses through the valorisation of collected plastic litter and the provision of zero-waste solutions to all actors. We plan to employ 4 breakthrough innovations per pillar (monitoring, collection, prevention) that are neatly interwoven, building upon each other to create an even better whole. We will test these solutions in 8 demonstration sites in 8 Mediterranean countries and after validation, scale them up in 33 more sites with the potential to be launched across the whole Mediterranean. In parallel we will run two open calls to third parties to attract more solutions for implementation following our same methodology. All-in-all, we plan to map out 170 km2 for plastic litter, reach circa 100,000 citizens, collect around 400 tons of plastic waste, and build up plastic prevention pathways through scaling and replication for an equivalent of 3,700 tons of plastic.

INSPIRE's main objective is to contribute to the drastic reduction of litter, macro and microplastics in European rivers in a holistic approach, by bringing together 20 technologies and actions for: DETECTION of the pollution present in the river and at the riverbank, COLLECTION of litter and macroplastics at the river bank and litter, macro and microplastics in the river, PREVENTION of litter, macro and microplastics to enter the river by collecting it from its waste stream before it can enter the river and by developing biodegradable alternatives for currently non-degradable polluting products, to avoid they will further be used and arrive in the river as litter. Six use case are defined in INSPIRE to install and test the technologies and actions, to model the processes related to the water purification activities, to obtain 7 well defined solutions at detection, collection or prevention level and combinations thereof. The technical feasibility is backboned by a techno-economical analysis with the development of business cases for the solutions, action plans towards upscaling and replication and together with mapping and modelling all elements are brought together to develop a Master Plan for tackling the challenges of the mission and contributing to the objectives of the mission. The INSPIRE project will be very visible due to its well developed dissemination and communication plan and strategy for community engagement. Apart from the general dissemination and communication tools and activities, specific activities will be setup on festivals, promoting 100% biodegradable products as a result of INSPIRE. INSPIRE's consortium is composed of 26 partners with complementary expertise and a good balance of academia, industry, communication specialists and soft skills organisations is obtained, who all together will work towards the target of having a number of successful solutions that can find their way to the market and put INSPIRE on the radar.