The aim of Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030’ is to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments. To achieve this, the European Commission highlights that “Missions put emphasis on demonstrating, scaling up and replicating existing and new solutions including social innovations.”[1]. To foster the identification and uptake of knowledge towards the ambitious objectives and targets of the Mission, the PREP4BLUE (P4B) project has adopted a tried and tested Knowledge Transfer Methodology, developed by WP4 Leader ERINN (Ireland).
The ultimate goal of the Knowledge Transfer Methodology is to enhance uptake of solutions and thus foster impact. It is comprised of 3 main steps: Collection, Analysis, Transfer. The methodology can be used by Mission-funded projects, policy makers, applied researchers and industry stakeholders to ensure the take-up and application of their Mission-relevant solutions.
- Collection involves the identification of potential sources of knowledge. In P4B this identification was AI supported by SDU (Denmark). This step also involves the identification and description of Mission Relevant Knowledge from the sources, through interviews with the Knowledge Owners For the selection of both, sources and Mission Relevant Knowledge and Analysis Criteria was developed and applied. Based on this AI-supported identification and selection, Mission relevant Key Exploitable Results (KER) were identified and described.
- Analysis serves to provide a better understanding the landscape, actors, timelines, priorities etc. of the sector and/or industry through Expert Panels. Based on the Analysis Criteria developed by P4B, it is determined if a KER has potential to contribute to the Mission Objectives and Targets. High potential KERs are prioritised this way, for next steps.
- Transfer is about enabling application of knowledge and understanding what key information is needed to do so; bringing the knowledge to the right person so that they can pick it up and carry it forward, moving it towards impact. Pathways to Impact per high Priority KER are defined to maximise uptake within the Mission Lighthouse (LH) Initiatives context. The Analysis Criteria are again used to identify the most efficient pathway, as well as for transfer impact monitoring.
In 2024, six Analysis meetings took place, where expert panels were convened to discuss Mission-relevant KERs and prioritise them for next steps. Of the more than 100 KERs described, about 50% are currently validated by the Knowledge Owner for upload from side of PREP4BLUE, on the Mission Ecosystem Database WaveLinks. The validated KER to date, were presented in these Analysis Meetings covering all three Mission Objectives (MO) and all four Mission Lighthouse Areas in a balanced Way. The Topics were as follows:
- Contamination Remediation (focus on MO2)
- Restoration and Protection (focus on MO1)
- Innovation in Aquaculture (focus on MO3)
- Data-based Solutions A – Acquisition & Repository (focus on MO1-3)
- Data-based Solutions B – Software & Systems (focus on MO1-3)
- Circular, low-carbon multi-purpose use of marine and water space (focus on MO3)
Furthermore, it was discussed, whether more impact may be achieved through prevention or restoration solutions.
We warmly thank the experts and contributions from P4B partner organisations CETMAR (Spain), CNR (Italy), IFREMER (France), UCC (Ireland) and VLIZ (Belgium), very much for the very insightful and rich insights and discussions.
The next steps in the Knowledge Management process in PREP4BLUE is to build on the very valuable contributions to effectively prepare the implementation phase of the Mission (2025-2030. Therefore, in PREP4BLUE informed pathways to Impact are developed, to build the basis for transfer of KERs in the Mission context.
[1] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on European Missions (2021): https://cor.europa.eu/en/events/Documents/COTER/ec_communication_eu_missions.pdf; see Manago, C., & Ni Cheallachain, C. (2024). PREP4BLUE D4.2: Customized Knowledge Management Method for Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12527756
