- The project’s main objective, which has a budget of 6,200,000 euros, is to improve knowledge of the impacts and effects of emerging pollutants in different marine environments
- FINNOVA will oversee the communication and dissemination of the project
- The project can be scaled up and submitted to other European programs, such as Interreg Next Med, whose call for proposals closes on 28 March 2024
19/01/2024, Brussels. The Kick-Off meeting of the Horizon ONE-BLUE project will be held next Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 of January, a meeting that will be the first face-to-face contact between the partners involved in the project. The main objective of the project, whose budget amounts to 6,200,138.75 €, is to improve the knowledge of the presence, effects and risks of pollutants 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 European Union’s main research and innovation funding program.
ONE-BLUE is a project led by the Consjeo Superior de Investigaciones (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 18 entities (reaching 21 by adding the institutes within the CSIC) representing 11 European Union countries. The Italian Water Research Institute, the University of Milan, the University of Padua and the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of Tuscany, 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, y Microlife Solutions (The Netherlands), the Dublin City University (Ireland), the Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany), the University of Dubrovnik (Croatia), the University of Orebro (Sweden), the Cyprus Centre for Research and Innovation (CYRIC) and FINNOVA (Belgium) are the partners involved in this 3 and half years.
Beyond the main objective, the project seeks to address the problem of ocean pollution from other perspectives. For example, to test the effects of pollution in the oceans, marine mesocosms (miniature ecosystems) will be used to simulate scenarios to predict situations related to the effects of pollutants and climate change in the seas. In addition, these tests, which will be carried out in artificial ecosystems, will provide tools that will allow the application of these results in policies that can be implemented in the European Union. In addition, we should underline the creation of the CECsMarineDB database, which will harbor the data generated in ONE-BLUE and will take advantage of data from other existing projects and databases that report on emerging pollutants in the marine environment.
In line with the EU zero pollution action plan for air, water and soil and the EU biodiversity strategy 2030, ONEBLUE will contribute to build 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). 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 between climate change and pollutants.
Finnova, experts in communication
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 communication and dissemination of ONE-BLUE. The foundation will be in charge of the communication plan, exploitation and dissemination strategy that complies with the guidelines set out in the consortium agreement and reaches the target audience (related projects, the scientific community, public agencies, regulatory bodies, students, researchers, etc.). In addition, a strategy for the dissemination of project data will be adopted at an early stage of the project, based on the publication of the collected data deposited in the IPCheM portal of the European Commission.
With this project, the Finnova Foundation once again shows its commitment to caring for the environment and defending biodiversity. The foundation is a partner in another Horizon project, RES4CITY, an innovative €2.5 million educational project, which aims to ensure that education systems are at the center of the ecological transition, closely aligned with those values of sustainability and the fight against climate change that the foundation supports. It also participates in LIFE COSTAdapta, a €3,337,563.47 project, 60% subsidized by the LIFE Program, for the adaptation of the coast of Gran Canaria to sea level rise through an innovative Tidal pool-reef methodology that partially uses the traditional technique of tidal pool construction, common elements in the Canary Islands and the rest of Macaronesia for the coastal adaptation of Gran Canaria to climate change.
Scalability of the project
The Horizon 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 2021-2027, Horizon Europe, is the European Union’s main initiative to promote 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 the EU’s 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 to address major global challenges in crucial areas such as health, aging, security, pollution and climate change.
About the 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.