As part of
the Interreg MED 2014-20 “Blue
Bio Med” strategic innovation project, CREDA is organising a series of
online workshops on innovation around the sustainable development challenge of marine
plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, with stakeholders from all over the
Mediterranean basin.
Yearly, it is estimated that between 230,000 and 570,000 tons of plastic enter the Mediterranean; all in a semi-closed basin that holds 1% of global waters. This pollution is impacting biodiversity in a region where many communities depend economically on marine resources. Over the last years, actors across the basin are increasingly mobilising efforts to address the challenge, with notable examples such as the H2020 flagship initiative for a Cleaner Mediterranean led by the UfM; and the UfM Environment Agenda, “Towards 2030: Agenda for a Greener Mediterranean-Contributing to Achieving the Environmental SDGs in the Mediterranean”.
Organised together with Reimagined Futures, two online workshops led by CREDA intend to facilitate the co-creation of innovations around the challenge of recovery and upcycling of plastics in the Mediterranean. This will be done through a systems mapping methodology, which allows delimiting the challenge, the actors, their roles and relations. Leverage points of action will be detected, where innovation efforts might focus. The workshops feed on a smaller event, organised with stakeholders located in Catalonia on July 1st.
The workshops will help to connect quadruple helix stakeholders (government, research and education, business, civil society) from different MED regions and countries wanting to work together on the challenge with a transformative approach.
Additionally, the workshops will help to collect inputs for the further development of a governance model of innovation policies suitable to tackle the challenges of sustainable development in the blue bioeconomy in the Mediterranean region.
Finally, the outcomes of this collective work will contribute as well to build the premises for a wider innovation alliance for the Mediterranean blue bioeconomy aligned with the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
Participation is by invitation only. We invite interested quadruple helix stakeholders to carry out innovative actions related to the challenge of marine plastic pollution, in the Mediterranean. Stakeholders interested in participating are advised to get in contact with CREDA writing an e-mail to david.fernandez.guerrero@upc.edu and lourdes.reig@upc.edu.
The results will be shared through the project channels and on this platform by the end of the cycle.
The envisaged structure of the workshops is the following:
· 1st workshop. Shared understanding of the challenge. 29 September 2021, 14-17 CET.
Participants representing quadruple helix stakeholders will work to reach a shared understanding of the challenge, and the leverage points where innovation co-creation might focus.
· 2nd workshop. Identifying a portfolio of innovative actions. 3 November 2021, 14-17 CET.
Based on the shared understanding of the challenge and the leverage points, the same participants will co-create a portfolio of innovative actions to address the challenge.