PERMAGOV aims to contribute to the realization of the EU Green Deal objectives by improving implementation and performance of EU marine policies. PERMAGOV’s project objectives are: 1) co-developing and applying a Marine Governance Performance Assessment Framework to assess how institutional barriers, formal and informal collaborations and e-governance tools enable and constrain the capability of actors to implement EU marine policies within the areas of Marine Energy, Maritime Transport, Marine Life and Marine Litter; and 2) co-producing Multi-Layered Collaborative Marine e-Governance Strategies which enhance the capability of end-users to contribute to the implementation of EU marine policies related to the four marine issue areas to achieve the EU Green Deal goals. PERMAGOV will contribute to the improved performance of marine polices and a successful implementation of the EU Green Deal objectives, by an assessment of 9 cases (De-carbonizing shipping, Motorways of the Sea (Maritime Shipping), Seabed integrity, Sustainable fisheries in MPAs (Marine Life), Floating Wind, Energy island, Offshore Wind (Marine Energy), Marine litter (Baltic and Mediterranean Seas)(Marine Plastics)), focusing on the enabling and constraining conditions of institutional barriers and the possibilities for multi-layered collaborative and e-governance. Characteristics for PERMAGOV is co-production and co-creation from the start to the end of the project and beyond. Together with end-users and stakeholders from maritime industries, NGOs, researchers and policymakers the Performance Assessment Framework will be developed and applied, in co-production the cases will be assessed, innovative Governance Strategies will be developed and digital tools will be improved in order to overcome the barriers hampering the performance of marine policies and the successful implementation of the objectives of the European Green Deal.

With an overall aim to support the coherent implementation of the EU (European Union) Biodiversity Strategy (EUBS) 2030, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) post-2020 framework, as well as the EU Green Deal, MSP4BIO develops and demonstrates the ways in which knowledge-based MSP becomes a vehicle and a tool for the protection and recovery of ecosystems. Specifically, MSP4BIO will develop an integrated flexible socio-ecological management to cope with a rapidly changing environment for coastal, offshore, and deep-sea ecosystems and validate its concrete applicability in 6 test sites in 5 European Sea Basins. The management relies on improved systemic biodiversity prioritization criteria for MPAs and EBSAs, based on the best available scientific knowledge on biodiversity attributes, and linking spatial ecological features (including migratory ones) with socio-economic considerations. MSP4BIO uses a participatory approach to co-develop ecosystem services trade-off scenarios to prioritize the areas and assess the suitability of spatial and strategic management measures from the ecological and socio-economic perspectives. The approach integrates the criteria and objectives of relevant maritime and biodiversity policies as well as the EUBS 2030 to ensure coherent policy implementation. As such, the project will develop and improve approaches, methods, and tools to feed scientific knowledge, making it of direct use to planners and MPA managers, while producing site-specific results informing site-specific, and broader policy processes and decisions. The project builds on and integrate existing knowledge and results from multiple origins, and ensures effective collaboration with relevant projects and initiatives to fill present gaps on marine biodiversity, speeding up the scientific brake while paving pave the way for effective biodiversity management.

BLUE4ALL will align top-down regulatory demands about European (networks of) MPAs with bottom-up societal expectations as a guarantee for achieving effective, efficient and resilient MPAs and networks of MPAs which meet EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030 objectives. By mobilizing stakeholders from BLUE4ALL’s 25 information sites and Living Labs, i.e. locations across the Mediterranean Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North-East Atlantic regions where (networks of) MPAs have been established and from which lessons learned can be drawn about success and failure relative to how challenges were tackled, we will co-create robust and replicable social, governance, ecological and environmental tools to meet conservation and/or restoration objectives in socially sustainable and acceptable ways. These science-based tools will be tested in Living Labs, i.e. locations where (networks of) MPAs are in the process of establishment and where these tools can be fed into the ongoing MPA process. The operationalized and tested frameworks will ultimately be generalized into a Blueprint Platform for the co-creation of effective, efficient and resilient (networks of) MPAs. This scheme will separate generically encountered challenges and applied solutions from MPA (network)-specific challenges and solutions and develop guidance in a user-friendly manner to end-users (i.e. MPA (network) managers and authorities). This guidance will take the shape of an interactive web-based Blueprint Platform directing the end-users to those challenges and solutions most applicable to their site(s). User-friendliness and applicability will be maximized by cross-checking the Blueprint Platform development with the actors and stakeholders of the Living Labs throughout the whole process of its development. Knowledge transfer and interaction with stakeholders and society-at-large at local to regional scales will lead to the development of a platform for MPA networking to interact with communities of practice boosting the BLUE4ALL legacy to its ultimate goal to restore our oceans and waters.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy (BDS) requires expanding the spatial coverage of marine protected areas to 30%, with 10% strict protection. Achieving the current 14-17% coverage has taken the Baltic Sea region 30 years, and strict protection remains almost non-existent. To meet the BDS target the countries will have to double the coverage in just 8 years. To fully capitalize on the added value of increased coverage, designation, management and measures, including restoration, need to be done in a strategic, ecologically relevant way focusing on areas and measures which enhance the existing network and optimise the possibility to secure positive biodiversity outcomes. There are however substantial challenges facing the region when it comes to leveraging the full potential of upcoming protection and restoration efforts and ultimately, positive biodiversity outcomes, especially in such a tight timeframe. To ensure that the upcoming efforts are both effective and efficient, this transboundary, network level, biogeographical region scale project will: - develop infrastructure for, and ensure long term access to, an unparalleled data driven, ecoregion scale, evidence base to support strategic planning, measures and management; - develop a blue print for, and establish, a data driven, regionally agreed protection framework to improve governance and transboundary cooperation, including politically agreed shared conservation and restoration objectives, targets etc to reach the desired state; - identify the current baseline of protection efforts across the entire sea basin. - cross-reference the desired state with the current baseline to identify gaps in protection and restoration efforts; - provide concrete and replicable support to ensure capacity for the Baltic Sea MS to strategically fill the gaps, harmonise, and achieve the full potential of the protection and restoration efforts.

The MMinE-SwEEPER project will advance knowledge, capability and capacity in Europe for dealing with marine munition in the non-military aspect of UXO-clearance. 21 partners from 7 EU and 2 associated countries bring experience and capabilities from the civil science community (9), military research (3), coast/border guards or EOD-services (4) as well as industry (3) and intergovernmental organizations (2). Jointly they will work in 8 technical work packages to a) advance automated munition detection, identification and data analyzing technologies and software, b) environmental monitoring of chemical contaminants, c) predictions of UXO-burial, contaminants spread and the state-of-corrosion, and will d) enable secure exchange of sensitive data (64% of person months). Three additional WPs will compile existing knowledge, learn about the legal responsibilities and technical approaches, assess remediation and mitigation measures and create training material for building European capacity (14% PM). Two WPs will engage in an intense stakeholder dialog and dissemination/outreach activities by utilizing capacities already existing at HELCOM and JPIO (14% PM). Outcomes with respect to specific technical advancements will include a) AI-supported detection of munition in hydroacoustic spatial mapping data (MBES, SSS; SAS), b) detection of buried munition objects (magnetic, SBP, LF-SAS), c) AI-supported object identification in optical and acoustic cameras and d) implementing trained AI-models into Smart-AUVs and -USVs for adaptive and cooperative mission execution. All this will utilize secure data exchange possibilities through a demonstrator data platform that will be refined during the project. Industry partners see a great benefit in developing technologies that later can be advanced further to become commercial products. At the end of the project most TRLs will be at 5 to 6, meaning they have been applied under real conditions and proved their applicability.