"The Erasmus+ project entittled ""Supporting the development of socially-inclusive Blue Challenges in schools in the Mediterranean sea-basin"" (BlueS_Med) aims at developing, testing and evaluating innovative approaches to integrate ocean/marine issues and challenges in the curriculum and educational activties of schools in different Mediterranean countries. With partners from France, Greece, Italy and Malta, combining expertise in education, marine science and policy - along with a strong track record in the development of ocean literacy initiatives for different target groups, the project will be implemented in four phases: - Phase I is a conception phase, focusing on the development of the Blue challenge framework that will guide the development and implementation of Blue Challenges at schools in the following year. It will help also consolidating the consortium and share experiences and practice among partners and countries;; - Phase II focuses on the development of the Blue challenge in thirteen schools associated to the consortium - designing the Blue challenge and developing innovative educational tools and material that wil be required for implementing the Blue challenge. This phase also include the selection of pupil ambassadors in each school (two per school) and the organisation of a transnational training of these pupils' ambassadors (accompanied by their teachers) to train them in the role they will have in communicating and disseminating the Blue Challenge activities and results . - Phase III is the practical implementation of the Blue challenge in the schools with support from partner organisations. It includes also the monitoring and evaluation of the blue school challenge to assess its impact and added value. - Phase IV aims at making a synthesis and disseminating the results of the project to wider audience in each country and the mediterranean sea basin scale, with in particular the organisation of national and Mediterranean Sea basin multiplier events. The project will build on the following principles: (a) co-building - ensuring children/pupils contribute to the co-design of ""their"" Blue challenge - putting co-responsibility and action at the center of their Blue Challenge; (b) interactive and proactive - making use of all e-tools and social medias to support implementation and peer-to-peer exchanges, while giving the priority to ""practical activities"" that give a feeling about the ocean and the human-ocean relationships; (c) inclusive - giving special attention to mobilise children from different social groups, to generate gender unbiased questions and to learning about the principle of democracy (discussing, listening, accepting while being still mobilised) when designing and implementing their Blue challenge; (d) sustainable - ensuring the footprint of the project and of the actions proposed under the Blue Challenge of each school is minimised - and that potential environmental and social ancilary benefits are delivered whenever possible and relevant. The project will deliver five key intellectual outputs (developed in English and translated in French, Italian and Greek - so as to facilitate dissemination within the different partner countries, in the Mediterranean sea basin and at the European scale): - Intellectual output I: The framework and guidance for the Mediterrean Blue challenge processes, (a) building in particular on a benchmarking of existing experiences in ""bringing the sea"" to the classroms and (b) proposing a systematic monitoring and evaluation of the blue challenges implementation so as to assess their added value and benefits; - Intellectual output 2: presenting the proposed Blue challenges for each individual school (13 in total) in terms of concepts, proposed activities, innovative educational material developed, planning and expected ouput- Intellectual output 3, summarising the results of the monitoring and evaluation of the Blue challenges implemented to assess their added value & impacts - Intellectual output 4: A Knowledge base of tested educational material for internalising the ocean in different curricula/education, facilitating its access to different groups so as to ensure the wider use and application in other schools - Intellectual output 5: A road map for supporting the uptake of Blue challenges in Mediterranean Sea basin schools (with specific country-specific annexes)"

The objective of LANDSUPPORT is the construction of a web-based smart geoSpatial Decision Support System (S-DSS), which shall provide a powerful set of tools devoted to (i) support sustainable agriculture/forestry, (ii) evaluate trade-off between land uses (including spatial planning) and (iii) contribute to implementation, impact and delivery of about 20 European land policies and also selected 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals including climate change resilience goals and the key SDG 15.3 “achieving a land degradation-neutral world”. This objective is achieved by the integration of already existing databases (interoperability) at different scales with the development of high performance modelling engines simulating agriculture & forestry (e.g.crop growth), land degradation and environmental issues (e.g.fate of pollutants, ecosystem services). All the above, including their validation by remote sensed data will be ensured by a technology at the state of art for the developing environment (i.e.COMPSs), high-performing computing (e.g.GPU) and massive raster data management (e.g.RASDAMAN). LANDSUPPORT will be applied at four geographic scales: EU; 3 Nations (Italy, Hungary, Austria); 2 European Regions in IT and HU; 3 pilot sites in AU, IT, HU; and 2 pilot sites in Tunisia and Malaysia. By doing that, LANDSUPPORT will reconcile grand agriculture/environmental sustainability policy ambitions with operational reality as required by RUR-03-2017 call such as the evaluation of “land use trade-offs” and “incentivizing real actions/behaviour/investments”; all requiring activities at detailed spatial scale. LANDSUPPORT fits with the priorities of this work programme, as LANDSUPPORT S-DSS is (i) scientific and technology innovation as driver for rural development, (ii) a framework for innovation and new business models adapted to the rural context, (iii) support for skills development in rural communities, (iv) a new approach towards policies and governance (subarea 1).

A-AAgora aims to develop the implementable NbS (Nature based Solutions) through innovative governance structures and technological architecture. It targets to boost resilience to climate change and mitigating its impacts in coastal areas. It identifies synergies by promoting a deliberative process to complement other priority areas within the EC Mission - by setting a Community of Practice and developing a digital knowledge system. It develops NbS at three replicable demonstrators (Demo-PT, Demo-IE, Demo-NO), which can upscaled. The project seeks improved public engagement and enhanced decision-making processes at different political levels based on scientific knowledge and targeted social and economic awareness, using an EBM approach. It builds on the successful implementation of NbS at the Demo’s to which the necessary socio-technological tools will be produced as required for a realistic EBM planning cycle (up to TRL/SRL 7). The Living Lab concept will foster the exchange synergies at multiple scales between researchers and users, decision-makers and local communities, industry and SMEs. A-AAgora will demonstrate that restoration of aquatic ecosystems is possible at a large scale through reduction of pressures, EBM, and effective NbS including blue reforestation to boost coastal resilience to climate change impacts. As well, the A-AAgora will make the most of cross-Mission synergies, by targeting marine ecosystem restoration in coastal communities particularly vulnerable to the risks of sea level rise that urgently need to adapt to ensure their population and infrastructure are safe, climate-proof and weather-resilient. The design of innovative architecture, enabling interoperability with other systems and will also foster a more ‘digital ocean’.

AQUACROSS aims to support EU efforts to enhance the resilience and stop the loss of biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems as well as to ensure the ongoing and future provision of aquatic ecosystem services. It focuses on advancing the knowledge base and application of the ecosystem-based management concept for aquatic ecosystems by developing cost effective measures and integrated management practices. AQUACROSS considers the EU policy framework (i.e. goals, concepts, time frames) for aquatic ecosystems and builds on knowledge stemming from different sources (i.e. WISE, BISE, Member State reporting, modelling) to develop innovative management tools, concepts, and business models (i.e. indicators, maps, ecosystem assessments, participatory approaches, mechanisms for promoting the delivery of ecosystem services) for aquatic ecosystems at various scales. It thereby provides an unprecedented effort to unify policy concepts, knowledge, and management concepts of freshwater, coastal, and marine ecosystems to support the cost-effective achievement of the targets set out by the EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy.

The UNITED (multi-Use platforms and co-locatioN pilots boosting cost-effecTive, and Eco-friendly and sustainable production in marine environments) project provides evidence by means of pilot demonstrators that the development of multi-use platforms or co-location of different activities in a marine and ocean space is a viable approach (economically, socially and environmentally) for European maritime industry and local ecosystems. The main activities centre around 5 pillars defined through the BG-05 call (i.e. Technology, Economy, Legal/Governance/Policy, Society, and Environment). The technological pillar comprises the need for synchronization of multiple operation and maintenance systems, local market stakeholders impact, support in management and planning decisions for new developments, as well as improvements in current design, safety and infrastructure set-ups for multi-use extensions. The economic pillar will investigate insurance issues, profitability/threshold to finance/investment pay off of multi-use developments while also paying consideration to risk/health impact on business, zoning and offshore, and economic sustainability. The Legal/Policy/Governance pillar focuses on the lack of dialogue between public institutions which issue permits; the lack of health and safety regulation and standards for multi-use, zoning and offshore as well as the absence of a framework for legal responsibility in multi-use. The societal pillar includes societal debates and concerns, societal perception of multi-use social preference of multi-use versus single use, societal ownership and acceptance issues, trust issues between sectors, required improvements in professional skills and competences. The environmental pillar includes determining the impacts of the various structure designs and the overall environmental feasibility of the pilot site developments and implementation regimes.