The new EU project ''Black Sea CONNECT'' funded within the “Horizon 2020” program has been officially launched in December 2019 with the participation of Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University - Institute of Oceanography and Hydrology (IOH) of the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences as one of the 14 project partners.

The Black Sea is a vital resource with vast potential to boost the societal value of the blue economy for countries surrounding the Black Sea. Towards this end, an Initiative has been supported by the EU to develop a joint research and innovation roadmap and guide national and EU-level policymakers. In this context, The Burgas Vision Paper has been launched during the European Maritime Day 2018 in Burgas, addressing the key pillars on which the strategic agenda will be built. The Burgas Vision Paper is a shared vision for a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable and better valued Black Sea by 2030 supported by the Ministerial Declaration towards a Common Maritime Agenda (2018) for the Black Sea, signed by Black Sea countries in Burgas. The Black Sea Blue Growth Initiative has also developed a draft version of SRIA (Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda) that identified four main challenges in the Black Sea; Black Sea Knowledge Bridge, Black Sea Blue Economy- Blue Growth, Key Joint Infrastructure, and Policy Enablers, Empowered Citizens and Enhanced Blue Workforce Capacity of the Black Sea.

The overall objective of the project is to coordinate the development of the SRIA operational Implementation plan based on these principles The SRIA and its Implementation Plan will guide stakeholders from academia, funding agencies, industry, policy, and society to address the fundamental Black Sea challenges, to promote blue growth and economic prosperity of the Black Sea region, to build critical support systems and innovative research infrastructure and to improve education and capacity building.

The project “Black Sea CONNECT (connect2blacksea.org) will help boost Blue Economy by connecting grand challenges and policies and aims to support high-quality science and innovation to improve society’s welfare both in the Black Sea countries and EU.

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