About Marine-Ecomed

The MARINE_ECOMED project has been created through the support of the Erasmus+ EU Program with the objective to build an international strategic partnership to enhance research and education in the subject of sustainable marine management and communication strategies in this field, within the Mediterranean unique natural and socio-economic context. It is a 3 years project developed by a trans-sectoral international network of institutions such as Universities and Non-Governmental Organizations, which are geographically based on the European coast over an area that goes from the East (Greece) to the West (Spain) of the Mediterranean.

This heterogeneous network of institutions, spread through the Mediterranean basin was accurately designed to integrate, through collaboration and exchange of good practices, the diverse research and teaching approaches of the different professional contexts found along the region.

A lesson during workshop 2019Thus, MARINE_ECOMED will enable to refine and enlarge the background of students, researchers and teachers, exposing them to different working and teaching realities and approaches, while strengthening new collaborations and creating new education materials.

The main outputs of the project will be the implementation of an Intensive Study Program (ISP) for university students and the creation of new educational materials. The ISP will focus in the multidisciplinary subject of planning and management of marine and coastal areas. It will involve students from different academic institutions and with different backgrounds that will be trained through innovative integrated approaches and will collaborate in an international workshop to apply and integrate their knowledge in an interactive manner working on a real case study. The new educational materials include the Open Education Resources in Planning and management of marine and coastal areas and Ocean literacy, the MOOC on Planning and management of marine and coastal areas, the Handbook on Marine education and communication in the Mediterranean. These materials will be produced through the collaboration of the experts of the partnership and made freely available for download from the MARINE_ECOMED website.

International perspective

MARINE_ECOMED was designed in response to the actual need to create and share innovative approaches and resources for education and communication on sustainable marine management within the Mediterranean Region.

Indeed, large attention has been addressed on this topic in recent years both at Global, European and Mediterranean level:

At global level, United Nations has recently declared the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030) in order to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. In parallel to the need for sustainable management and conservation of the marine environment the necessity to communicate, educate and create awareness on this topic also increased in recent years with the creation of a new discipline defined as Ocean Literacy, recently addressed by Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC-UNESCO) within the program “Ocean Literacy for all: a global strategy to raise the awareness for the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of our ocean”.

At European level, the European Commission, established a specific directorate general, the DG MARE which is responsible for the EU policy on maritime affairs and fisheries, addressing priorities such as the protection and sustainable management of the marine environment, its resources and related activities developed in it.

At Mediterranean level, the United Nations Environment Program – Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP-MAP) was adopted by all the 22 countries included as contracting parties to the Barcelona Convention and its protocols, providing a common international framework for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Sustainable Development of the Coastal Areas of the Mediterranean.

Network

With the goal to enhance regional cooperation for research and education in the Mediterranean, the creation of a network of individuals and institutions active in the field of marine management, communication and education in the region will be enhanced through the project.

Dissemination

After each ISP edition an international event was organized within the framework of the Project to disseminate results and enhance involvement of experts and institutions external to the partnership.
A Massive Open Online Course (link) and a Handbook of best practices (link) are available from this website.

The project ran from 1/11/2018 to 31/08/2021 (postponed to 31/12/2021).