The final conference for the PREP4BLUE project was held on the 29th of April 2025. The event was attended by over 70 stakeholders from across the Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ (the Mission) ecosystem. To ensure that the event was accessible to attendees from across Europe, the conference was held online.
The final conference featured five thematic sessions which showcased project outputs including tools for citizen and stakeholder engagement, approaches for knowledge management, resources for enabling the scale-up of solutions in support of Mission objectives, communication strategies and recommendations for supporting the Mission’s future.
The conference concluded with a lively discussion on how PREP4BLUE resources will support stakeholders now and during the next phase of the Mission. Key reflections from participants included the importance of knowledge transfer and how it is critical to achieve impact from Mission-funded projects and initiatives. Linked to this was the need for Mission-stakeholders to make use of existing tools and resources rather than developing new approaches from scratch. Applications such as PREP4BLUE’s WaveLinks are key to enabling this, as stakeholders will be able to search for and access solutions from across the Mission ecosystem with ease. It was noted that as the first project to be funded under the Mission and the first to end, the insights and learnings from PREP4BLUE will be invaluable for Mission actors. Project coordinator, Cecile Nys (IFREMER, France) noted that these learnings have been captured in a report co-authored by PREP4BLUE and the four other Lighthouse CSAs.
The final conference was a unique opportunity for both PREP4BLUE partners and stakeholders to come together to explore the applications of project outputs and celebrate the collective achievements of the project.
The presentations from the different thematic sessions can be accessed below, along with a recording of the event.
