The kick off meeting of TEPAV's first EU Horizon 2020 project in the field of blue growth, “BRIDGE-BS: Advancing Black Sea Research and Innovation to Co-Develop Blue Growth within Resilient Ecosystems,” was held online on 12-13 July 2021.

The start of the BRIDGE-BS Project was announced to stakeholders with an online event on 12-13 July 2021. Yakup Peker and Omar Kadkoy from TEPAV participated in the event. Following opening remarks by Middle East Technical University (METU) Rector Mustafa Verşan Kök, METU Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) Director Barış Salihoğlu, and Sigi Gruber from the European Commission, the event continued with Institute Deputy Director Mustafa Yücel’s presentation. Then, Gonzalo Garcia de Arboleya from the Research Executive Agency presented the project’s management process and the principles to be followed. In the following parts of the event, the leading partners of each work package gave informative presentations about the work that is planned to be carried out, and the partners exchanged views. The event was concluded with the wishes of the advisory board formed within the scope of the project, as well as Barış Salihoğlu and Mustafa Yücel providing information on the project’s next steps in the coming months.

BRIDGE-BS Project

Under the coordination of METU IMS, the project proposal “BRIDGE-BS: Advancing Black Sea Research and Innovation to Co-Develop Blue Growth within Resilient Ecosystems” submitted to the “H2020-BG-2018-2020” call in the field of HORIZON 2020 Food, Agriculture, Marine and Bioeconomy, was entitled to be supported by getting the highest score among applications.

The BRIDGE-BS will focus on Black Sea ecosystem resilience, services and development of the blue economy, as well as developing complementary observation systems and examining land and sea interaction. In accordance with this objective, the relations between anthropogenic (caused by human activities) events, which has come to the fore with the recent developments in the Marmara Sea, such as warming, acidification, oxygen deficiency in the seas, and economic activities on the coast (fishing, tourism, maritime transport, etc.) will be investigated. By examining these for the Black Sea, future prediction models are expected to be developed and business ideas to be supported to reduce the effects of such anthropogenic events. It is hoped that this will contribute to developing of necessary policies for the sustainable use of economic resources in the Black Sea.

In the consortium of this multinational project, which began on June 1, 2021, and will last for four and a half years, there are a total of 33 organizations, with seven from the Black Sea coastal countries, eight from the European Union member states, and international entities. With a budget of approximately 9 million Euros, BRIDGE-BS is also the EU Horizon 2020 project with the most Turkish partners.

TEPAV will participate in BRIDGE-BS as a co-leader partner in the “Socio-Economy and Social Innovations” work package. Following the identification of key stakeholders in this work package, in order to increase their participation in innovation activities, it is planned to establish living labs (networks of heterogeneous actors, resources, and activities combining user-centered research and open innovation), to prepare socioeconomic scenarios for the future of economic and social activities in the Black Sea region, and to evaluate ecosystem services. The studies will be completed with analysis of the necessary transformation paths that ensure blue growth in the Black Sea.