Coastal and terrestrial fisheries communities in Europe, often economically marginalised, are likely to face severe impacts as climate change becomes more acute. Although progress on climate mitigation and adaptation from national governments remains slow, local development actions can also address these impacts from the bottom up. Transformation to a post-carbon society undoubtedly requires additional, targeted support and extensive educational activities at the local level. The primary objective of COOL BLUE is to create frameworks for communities to self-organise and rediscover healthy, low-impact seafood. This healthy, beautiful, tasty food simultaneously revitalises ecosystems while bringing communities closer together, creating resilient, self-sufficient and self-sustaining socioecological systems which can withstand emerging global threats such as climate and demographic change. The COOL BLUE project will create a Northern European network of community-led initiatives in the Baltic and North Sea basins. This network will facilitate closer collaboration between regions, combining efforts across parallel projects and initiatives (e.g. PREP4BLUE, BlueMissionBANOS), while accelerating the development of commercially self-sustaining, low-impact, inclusive ocean farming systems in line with the Mission Work Programme to contribute to the recovery of our ocean and waters by 2030.

Several innovative ocean multi-use (MU) concepts that could contribute to a more sustainable and efficient use of ocean space have been proposed by the scientific and business community. There are yet very few of these MU concepts that are today implemented, mainly due to a lack of knowledge about potential impacts on the economy and the marine environment. MULTI-FRAME aims to increase the knowledge base and capacity of public and private actors for sustainable ocean MU, by providing concrete open source tools, assessment results and best practice examples. Results are expected to encourage relevant actors to systemically consider the MU concept in their planning and assessment practices and to streamline it in relevant ocean policies. Multi-Frame's co-development approach moves beyond the inherent limitations of theoretic research. A generic approach will be co-developed with a wide range of public, private, research and community actors and tested for the assessment of 1) cumulative and in-combination, 2) positive and negative, 3) socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts of MU. Project will fine-tune this approach by building scenarios together with a wide range of relevant stakeholders in five vulnerable marine areas in Sweden, Mozambique, Norway, France and United States. These case studies will: assess potential impacts based on current evidence; allow for possible MU options to be explored; ensure transferability and adaptability to different environments; consider a multitude of marine sectors and governance systems. The development of the assessment approach and the scenarios will feed into the final product of MULTI-FRAME, the 'Ocean Multi-Use Toolkit', meant to assist planners when deciding on the most optimal combination of uses in a given marine space, taking into consideration an equitable distribution of possible benefits while avoiding, minimizing or mitigating negative impacts. The Toolkit will also aid the decision-making processes of authorities and businesses venturing into offshore activities or developments.

Food and energy security, climate change, rising prices, empowerment of producers, and the fight against poverty has forced African countries to review their agricultural strategy to upgrade and modernize the sector. In Morocco, agriculture is responsible for 33% of the employment and contributes close to 13% of GDP. Agri-production has also seen increasingly high added value crops such as blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. In other countries such as South Africa, production is also expected to grow significantly in the coming years, showing great economic prospects in the sector. However, the growth of the agricultural sector combined with climate change exerts stress on water resources. 80-95% of water resources are used in agriculture of which 40% comes from groundwater. With an annual groundwater extraction rate of 4226 million cubic meters (MCM) and a renewal potential of 3404 MCM, Moroccan farmers are already witnessing a significant deficit, which will worsen in the near future. It is therefore critical for the agricultural sector to become more resilient and sustainable. This can be achieved by increasing efficiency in water management by using micro-irrigation systems, setting up water collection and using partial shading to reduce evapotranspiration. On the energy side, Morocco has no hydrocarbon reserves and is highly energy dependent. The growth of electricity demand is more than 4% a year. The power sector is the primary driver of CO2 emissions (39%) along with agriculture (5%). However, the kingdom has a very high renewable energy potential not yet exploited. In the Water-Energy-Food nexus, agrivoltaic (APV) systems, a combination of PV and agriculture on the same land, appears to be a very attractive solution to address these challenges with a strong synergy between the three following aspects. On the food level, it provides excellent plant protection against heat by providing partial shading. On the water side, the APV system helps to reduce water consumption by reducing evapotranspiration [8]. Also, the installation can be used to collect rainwater which can be filtered and used for drip irrigation. Finally, on the energy side, the electricity produced with the APV system can be used to power irrigation and desalination systems. The energy produced can be self-consumed by the agri-company for post-harvest processes such as food packaging, cold storage and transformation. It can also be reinjected into the grid. Due to the severe electricity shortage in South Africa, many farmers are considering PV panels. Local Independent Power Suppliers (IPP) claim that with the favorable climate in South Africa, the LCOE of electricity is below the purchase price of electricity from Eskom. The additional benefits of agricultural activities in shaded areas, such as water conservation and increased crop quality are becoming bonus attributes that can improve the financial viability of the farm and food security for the country. In this project, the benefit of APV will be assessed in the context of agriculture in arid regions, with emphasis on the synergy between the Water-Energy-Food nexus. A first part of the project will be focused on better understanding and demonstrating how APV can help the booming berry industry in Morocco and South Africa to become more sustainable and resilient. A second part of the project will be focused on assessing how APV can be deployed at a larger scale for fruit and vegetable production across African countries. The project will follow a participative approach where all stakeholders will be involved in the various phases of the project implementation, including governmental agencies concerned with water-food-energy, the private sector and farmers. The outcomes of the project will be transferred to these parties through awareness raising, capacity building, dissemination activities and training materials that will be regularly scheduled throughout the project.

The three-year CrossGov project aims to enhance knowledge on how coherence and cross-compliance of marine related policies and legislation affect the ability to realise the goals of the EU Green Deal for the protection of marine ecosystems and biodiversity, and to co-create proposals and roadmaps towards this end. A core strength of CrossGov is the close collaboration with the policymaking community that will be engaged in co-creation of knowledge and recommendations for solutions. The background for the project is the complex multi-level and multi-sector governance system created by global and regional international frameworks, the EU and the European coastal states. This policy landscape has not managed to halt the degradation of European seas and will be challenged further by the EU Green Deal’s call for transformative changes. Based on scenarios and methodological guidance for studies of coherence, cross-compliance and scientific advice, the project will analyse how policies and legislation at various levels support or impede progress towards the Green Deal in the marine domain. The practical results of attempts to implement the various requirements will be studied in three regional cases (the North Sea, the Baltic and the Mediterranean), and in five national cases (Finland, Norway, Netherlands, France, Italy). The insights gained will be discussed with CrossGov’s Stakeholder Forum to co-create recommendations for better integrated policies towards implementing the Green Deal in the marine context. The innovative, web-based and fit-for purpose roadmaps and methodological guidelines will enable policymakers to effectively foster environmentally sustainable law and governance that is fit-for-purpose for delivering the societal transformation called for.

Engaging primary producers (PP) in RDI programs remains a significant challenge across Europe. This challenge is driven by factors such as limited access to information, low awareness of bio-based solutions, and various structural, financial, and regulatory barriers. These obstacles hinder PP integration into emerging circular bio-based value chains, despite the potential to introduce new business models that offer environmental benefits, including energy and nutrient recycling, sustainable production systems, and new revenue streams in rural areas. The CBE JU is committed to enhancing the involvement of primary producers within its funding schemes and the resulting innovative solutions. To this end, a Working Group on Primary Producers (WGPP) will be established, bringing together sector representatives from agriculture, forestry, and the blue economy. This group will develop an Action Plan aimed at strengthening the role of PPs in future CBE JU-funded projects and beyond. RootLinks will support and facilitate the efforts of the WGPP in co-creating and implementing this Action Plan. It includes horizontal and sector-specific actions designed to improve the role of primary producers in CBE JU programming, increase their participation in calls, and enhance their ability to exploit new value chains. The focus will be on to generate direct, tangible, and measurable benefits for PP, empowering them to become strong partners in cross-disciplinary bio-based research and innovation projects across Europe. Furthermore, RootLinks actions will enhance the roles of PP in exploiting innovations and related value chains, fostering improved collaboration between PPs and the bio-based industry. RootLinks offers a unique portfolio of sector expertise and competencies, implementing a comprehensive set of activities at the European, national, and regional levels, including knowledge and awareness-raising, capacity building and training, partnership development, and networking.