- The Foundation, partner of the project, has attended the kick-off meeting held in Barcelona this week.
- The objective of ONE-BLUE is to improve the knowledge of the effects of emerging pollutants in different marine environments.
01/02/2024, Brussels. Finnova Foundation attended, last Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd February, the launch meeting of the Horizon ONE-BLUE project held in Barcelona. The meeting served as a first contact between the partners of the consortium and allowed to agree on the next steps to be taken. FINNOVA explained to the consortium the guidelines that will be implemented in terms of dissemination and clustering in the project.
The main objective of the project, with a budget of 6.200.138,75€ is to improve knowledge of the presence, effects and risks of contaminants of emerging interest in different marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity in an environment affected by climate change. This project is funded by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe program, the main research and innovation funding program of the European Union.
On Monday, Adrian Noheda, European project manager at FINNOVA, presented the role of the foundation to the partners, and gave a brief summary of the more than 10 years of operation of the entity. On Tuesday, Jon Larrachea, European projects communication assistant, presented the proposals that the foundation has proposed to the partners in dissemination and clustering tasks.
FINNOVA, dissemination and clustering experts
FINNOVA will put at the service of the project its more than 10 years of experience communicating European projects, performing several tasks focused on the dissemination and attraction of ONE-BLUE stakeholders. The foundation will be responsible for the creation of a dissemination strategy for the project, which complies with the guidelines set out in the consortium agreement and reaches the target audiences (related projects, the scientific community, public agencies, regulatory bodies, students, researchers, etc.). In addition, a strategy will be adopted for the dissemination of project data from an early stage of the project, based on the publication of the collected data deposited in the IPCheM portal of the European Commission. On the other hand, at the request of the project leader, Finnova will be in charge of creating and feeding the project’s social networks, a key tool for the dissemination of the project.
ONE-BLUE, commitment to the protection of the seas
ONE-BLUE is a project led by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and the Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA), the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (ICM) and the Instituto de Tecnologías Físicas y de la Información (ITEFI), institutes belonging to the CSIC. The consortium has a total of 18 entities (reaching 21 by adding the institutes within the CSIC) representing 11 countries of the European Union. The Italian Water Research Institute, the University of Milan, the University of Padua and the Regional Agency for the Environmental Protection of Tuscany (Italy), Venthic Technologies and the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (Greece), the Association for Research and Development of Sciences and the International Iberian Laboratory of Nanotechnology (Portugal), Delft University of Technology, Micronit and Microlife Solutions (The Netherlands), Dublin City University (Ireland), the Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), the University of Dubrovnik (Croatia), the University of Orebro (Sweden), the Cyprus Research and Innovation Center (CYRIC) and FINNOVA (Belgium) are the partners involved in this 3.5-year project.
In line with the EU zero pollution action plan for air, water and soil and the EU biodiversity strategy 2030, ONEBLUE will contribute to building new knowledge on pollutants and their impacts on different marine ecosystems, through three complementary case studies in the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, 179 sampling stations and more than 800 samples to be explored. The project will also use marine mesocosms (miniature ecosystems) to simulate scenarios to predict situations related to the effects of pollutants and climate change in the seas.
ONE-BLUE will assess the impact on the biota and biodiversity of marine microbial communities, as they are the main organisms affected and regulators of climate and biogeochemical changes, and this process will allow a better understanding of the combined effects of climate change and pollutants. The results extracted from the studies will provide tools that will allow the application of these data in policies that can be implemented in the European Union and will contribute to the creation of the CECsMarineDB database, which will house the data generated in ONE-BLUE and will take advantage of data from other projects with similar themes.
Scalability of the project
The ONE-BLUE project can be scalable in other countries and through other European programs. An example of this is the next Interreg Next Med call, where projects that make the Mediterranean a smarter, greener, more inclusive and better governed region will have a financial support of between 500,000 and 2.5 million euros with funding of up to 89%. The deadline for submitting proposals is March 28, 2024.
About Horizon Europe
The new European Framework Program for Research and Innovation for the period 2021-2027, Horizon Europe, is the European Union’s main initiative for the promotion of research and innovation. It succeeds the Horizon 2020 Framework Program, and has a budget of more than 95 billion euros to be implemented from 2021. The objectives of this new program include the fight against climate change, alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and boosting the competitiveness and growth of the European Union.
The idea of the program is to achieve a scientific, technological, economic and social impact of EU investments in R&I, thus strengthening its scientific and technological bases and fostering the competitiveness of the Member States.
For the Commission, Europe’s future growth and prosperity depend on its ability to remain a world leader in research and innovation. Horizon Europe aims to provide the means to achieve this goal in order to address major global challenges in crucial areas such as health, ageing, security, pollution and climate change.
About FINNOVA
FINNOVA is the Spanish-Belgian non-profit foundation based in Brussels and Spain, working for the promotion and development of innovation and entrepreneurship in the EU. FINNOVA’s experience in leading communication and dissemination activities of European projects is combined with a solid proven track record in business creation and entrepreneurship support programs, such as accelerators, incubators and events, as well as its commitment to training and employability of young people.