EMBRC is a distributed infrastructure of marine biology and ecology, encompassing aquaculture and biotechnology, exploiting the latest “omics”, analytical and imaging technologies, and providing on site and remote scientific and technical services to the scientific community of the public and private sector. EMBRC successfully completed a preparatory phase in early in 2014 with the production of a business plan and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by 9 countries. A host for its headquarters has been chosen and and an ERIC application is in preparation. Since only institutions from 5 MoU signatory countries went through the preparatory phase, the present proposal has as objectives: 1) to harmonize the access mechanism to the operational EMBRC-ERIC across all the partners, putting all the practical tools in place, including host contracts and single point online access platform, to enable EMBRC-ERIC to commence its access program; 2) to put in place practical guidelines towards the full implementation of the new European and international legislation and commitments on access and fair benefit sharing of the use of marine biological resources, thus providing clarity to future users of EMBRC-ERIC about their legal rights over obtained biological resources, and positioning itself globally as a broker between users and the supplying countries ; 3) to focus the smart specialization of the regions onto the opportunities marine biological resources offer for blue-biotech development and innovation, thus demonstrating the member states that EMBRC is a tool towards economic development of their maritime regions, and enticing them to sign the EMBRC-ERIC, and prioritize its sustained support, particularly from regions which are now underrepresented in EMBRC (Black and Baltic Seas). These activities will ensure that the beneficiary research communities can exploit the results obtained at EMBRC-ERIC facility from the start with the highest efficiency.

"The 2014 Communication ""Innovation in the Blue Economy” recognizes the lack of skilled workforce knowledgeable in the latest technologies and a range of other disciplines, as a challenge and hindering factor of blue economy. Alike, the New Skills Agenda for Europe confirms same status and suggests taking action for the improvement of the quality and relevance of training for obtaining the necessary skills. A challenge met across blue economy is the poor image of the activities among young and the lack of information in respect to career opportunities, which in combination with the ageing trend of European population may generate lack of qualified personnel.Maritime schools face several challenges in preparing students to meet workplace demands in an increasingly complex, knowledge and technology-based environment while lacking generic skills that are requested by employers, such as critical thinking, creativity, problem solving, communication and teamwork. In this context iSOL-MET aims to:-Bridge the gap between shipping world requirements in respect to human resources soft skills and competences, through developing innovative educational material based on the case study methodology-Bridge the needs of maritime professionals for ongoing career opportunities even after completing their sea service on board-Bridge the experience gap of maritime universities’ students in respect to the on-board operations and the shipping practices.-Exchange best practices and cultural awareness on maritime education and shipping issues.Project addresses the needs of the students for obtaining the required skills for entering the shipping market and provides to educators new educational tools. Furthermore, addresses the needs of the shipping industry for qualified personnel.To achieve the aforementioned objective iSOL-MET will produce:1.Maritime skills courses for multidisciplinary and multicultural groups of students: a comprehensive course program that will integrate International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) model course guidelines, practice-oriented, to link theory and practice through using maritime case studies, for cultivating specific soft skills2.Maritime Case Study Handbook: a collection of all case studies identified and analyzed during project’ life time. Case studies will be identified in close collaboration with the industry and will constitute an integrated educational material, designed to address current soft skills gaps, while providing to the educators with useful material in respect to the content and the teaching methods3.Guidelines for the development of soft skills educational material: a practical set of recommendations to course designers in developing, conducting and evaluating a course focusing on soft skills using cases studies.4.Soft skills evaluation tools: a set of tools that an educator or a manager can use for evaluating the soft skills competences of students or employees. The aim is the creation of an Assessment Center for systematizing the process of soft skills evaluation, through case studies.. Assessment Center will link the academia with the business world since, the case studies developed in combination with designed assessment tools could be used in the shipping industry for assessing the competences of existing employees or for recruitment reasons. Through iSOL-MET is expected to:•Enhance the quality and relevance of the learning offer in maritime education through developing innovative educational material, using the case study methodology •Help students recognize and adopt ""growth"" mindset, meaning that their capacities are expandable. Students' mindset shifting is expected to affect their performance and motivation. •Develop competency and knowledge sharing, through mobilizing the maritime skills across participating countries.•Meet the demand of highly skilled maritime professionals and enhancing youth employment possibilities•Improve the attractiveness of the maritime profession and remedying to the observed lack of articulated educational proposition for sea-related activities, by adapting the courses content to the new maritime environment and emerging trends of the industry•Bundle forces from intergovernmental organizations, research institutes and the shipping industry to provide innovative skills for marine business•Promote and support networks connecting education and training organisations in EU level and encourage opportunities of cluster academia cooperation.•Change the professors’ mentality about teaching techniques helping them to improve their effectiveness and the quality of their teaching method."

Maritime shipping industry is one of the most dynamic economic sectors throughout Europe due to the constant changes of its development needs. It is also closely linked to the changes in Marine Sciences and IT Technologies. Consequently, education and training in marine sciences has to follow closely the industry's trends in order to keep pace with the new competencies required by the development of maritime transportation technologies. Project MINE-EMI is focused at elaboration of Joint Master Program (JMPs) that facilitate developing skills and competences to raise awareness on emerging maritime issues in the wider Black Sea Basin in order to promote sustainable management of the maritime sector in the Black Sea basin. It involves representatives from the business sector and local administrations in order to fill the gap between the requirements in the maritime sector (management, transport operations, logistic) and the current lacking offer of updated courses in that matter. In the longer term, the objective is to establish a “Black Sea Community of MET (Maritime Education and Training) Institutions ” to contribute for boosting sustainable European maritime economy, Blue Growth, and Integrated Maritime Policy implementation by providing modern and adequate E&T.In line with the main objectives of the EU Integrated Maritime Policy - more coherent approach to maritime issues, with increased coordination between different policy areas - the project contributes to achieving efficient, safe, secure and environmentally shipping and logistic operations and the overall efficiency of tackling the maritime issues, through:- promotion of the quality of education and training in the MET sector to address the specific maritime challenges and prepare the future managers and experts applying innovative methods, practical oriented approach and e-learning model;- Facilitation the European mobility for students and teachers, involving educational and training institutions that wish to contribute to overcoming these challenges, in line with the “Maritime Erasmus” concept;- Cooperation between European MET organizations and industry in the field of education and training for managing the issues in maritime sector for upgrading competences and adapting to the requirements of the maritime industry.PARTNERS: 1 Piri Reis University - Lead Partner, PRU2 Constanta Maritime University, CMU3 Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy, NVNA4 University of the Aegean, UAEGEAN5 Marine Cluster Bulgaria, MCB6 Municipality of Piraeus, MP7 Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions, CPMRAll the partners have a consolidate experience based on its scientific/ academic and professional background, direct management of maritime scientific and vocational education and close links with stakeholders. The HEIs have been previously involved in similar projects and have experience not only to lead the IOs development, but to contribute best to the internationalization of the work.The project implementation is based on the progressive model, including preparatory activities, development, testing and finalization of JMPs. The preparatory activities consist of a need analysis involving industrial and governmental stakeholders in order to design a syllabus that corresponds to the contemporary needs and requirements and specific case studies at European level to identify, select and analyze accordingly the specific subject areas of maritime issues.In the development phase, educational material will be elaborated, collected, evaluated and selected, satisfying the criteria set by the stakeholders. While PRU, NVNA and UAEGEAN will work on theoretical part of the teaching materials, CMU will mainly work on practical side, creating scenarios for maritime simulators on the specific topics of the subject. The both parts will be developed on coordinated way in order to synchronize all the elements. A unified assessment system will be set up and implemented.PRU will led the integration of the developed modules in the JMPs. The lead partner will develop JMPs course catalogue together with the partner's HEIs for better adaptation to institutions specificities and to offer the courses outside the partnership framework.The produced material will be tested and evaluated during the mobility events. For the evaluation of the content, the teaching style, predefined assessment methods will be used, so to get measurable and comparable results. The feedback received will be then used to finalize the courses. The project derives from the experiences and needs of the participating institutions to raise awareness on emerging maritime issues. The beneficiaries of the project will be equipped with innovative tools for MET in master degree higher education that can be directly exploited and applied to the every-day life of the HEIs in practical, concrete level.The novelty of the project is determined by the innovative multi-dimensional approach, depending on objectives.