The Ocean Conference is around the corner!

From June 5^th – 9^th, coinciding with World Oceans Day, the United Nations will host at its headquarters in New York a high-level conference to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

The Ocean Conference aims to be the game changer that will reverse the decline in the health of our ocean for people, planet and prosperity. It will be solutions-focused with engagement from all.

The Conference shall comprise in its programme plenary meetings, partnership dialogues and a special event commemorating World Oceans Day. Furthermore, the Conference shall adopt by consensus a concise, focused, intergovernmentally agreed declaration in the form of a “Call for Action” to support the implementation of Goal 14 and a report containing the co-chairs’ summaries of the partnership dialogues, as well as a list of voluntary commitments (initiatives voluntarily undertaken by Governments, the UN system, other intergovernmental organizations, international and regional financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations, academic and research institutions, the scientific community, the private sector, philanthropic organizations and other actors – individually or in partnership – that aim to contribute to the implementation of SDG 14) to be announced at the Conference.

The importance of this conference was stressed by the President of the General Assembly:

“The Ocean Conference represents humanity’s best opportunity to remedy the woes we have placed upon the ocean. Those woes are extensive: from marine pollution to overfishing and destructive fishing practices; from harmful fisheries subsidies to lack of high seas governance; from rising levels of ocean acidity to rising ocean temperatures. If the cycle of decline that accumulated human activity has brought upon the ocean is not reversed, the implications for us all cannot be good”. 

You can follow the Ocean Conference live through SDG Media Zone website and social platforms, and keep up with news at the Conference website.

Geonardo follows closely the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 — and furthermore, through our projects, we are joining the global wave to take action and help address the Global Goals.

Our Research and Innovation actions have targeted so far SDG #7 on affordable and clean energy through Start2Act and TASIO, SDG #12 on responsible consumption and production through the project PlasCarb, and SDG #9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure with our projects FORBIO and FISSAC.  Keep tuned to find out about our new ideas to address other of the SDGs.

By: Mariana Mata Lara

EU Blue Growth in Action & European Maritime Day

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) funded 15 new blue growth projects that will help enhance career opportunities, stimulate the creativity of young researchers and bring research results faster to the market.

With 84 partners from 17 countries, the new BG projects will join the European Maritime Day (EMD), the key annual meeting point for Europe’s maritime community to network, discuss and forge joint action. This year, the EMD 2017 “The Future of our Seas” conference and exhibition will take place from 18-19 May 2017 in Poole, in the UK, with up to 1000 participants expected.

Out of all the projects, three projects have been selected to present during the EMD plenary session on 19th May – these are:

• North Sea Solutions for Innovation in Corrosion for Energy (NeSSIE): delivering corrosion solutions and new materials for offshore energy installations.
• A Blue Biotechnology Master for a Blue Career (BBMBC): creating a Master’s degree named “Applied Blue Biotechnology Master II” entirely focused on blue biotechnologies and their application in the health, nutrition and aquaculture domains.
• “Algae-to-Market Lab Ideas” (AMALIA): new products and services to address invasive alien species (invasive macro-algae) on the Iberian North West Coast and ensuring a sustainable exploitation of resources for food, health and industrial applications.

If you want to read more about the other 12 blue careers, labs and technology projects, you can check EASME’s site. And if you will not be able to go to Poole, you can also check the list with the 27 EMD events across the EU to spot an event near you to celebrate the 10th European Maritime Day!

By: Mariana Mata Lara

Passing on the START2ACT strategy to support European young SMEs and startups

Our H2020 project START2ACT has now completed the first of its three years. This past period was all about preparing the START2ACT support programme on Energy Efficiency to people at young SMEs and startups – all public outcomes of this period have been collected and provided here.

The upcoming project period has been launched with an event of major importance for the START2ACT members: The Training of Trainers on the 28. – 30.03.2017 in London.

All 11 partner companies of the consortium met in the British capital and spent three days together to receive training sessions from our START2ACT Energy Experts Carbon Trust, our startup ecosystem insiders startups.be and finally on the third day to close the meeting days with a general project assembly.

The Training of Trainers concept

The two Training of Trainers sessions aimed at educating the project partners in rolling out two of the START2ACT Energy Efficiency activities, namely on-site consultancy for SMEs and mentoring for startups, in the nine participating START2ACT countries. As the partners are all energy agencies and consultancy companies active in the energy efficiency field, they are now well prepared to support the two START2ACT target groups, young SMEs and startups.

Lucy Hunt, Paul McKinney and the team from the Carbon Trust delivered the first day Training of Trainers for the Energy Efficiency support to young SMEs. Within the START2ACT consultancy programme, the national partners will provide a free of charge, tailor-made support programme to young SMEs in order to understand and increase energy efficiency, and thereby help boost the companies’ potential to save energy and costs.

Diana Pati from Startups.be provided on the second day the Training of Trainers for the Energy Efficiency support programme to startups. One of the often-emphasised points during this training session was that startups often have very limited resources for additional topics outside of their original business scope. However, if once embraced an energy conscious company mindset and put this statement at the outset of their value proposition, any startup may boost its position to enter the market. Thus, the START2ACT startup mentoring programme will employ an innovative and lean structure to support startups in energy efficiency.

Influence the future business landscape – replicable strategy across Europe

Moreover, START2ACT seeks at transferring its amassed knowledge to other parties in Europe and beyond who might also be interested in assisting young SMEs and startups in adopting a more energy efficient behaviour. For this reason, the training kits (curriculum for the training) as well as manuals (instructions for the trainer) and handbooks (step-by-step guidance to roll out the support programmes) both for SMEs and startups have been published in the Results and downloads section of the START2ACT web page.

At START2ACT we are dedicated to supporting the players of our future European business landscape towards becoming more energy efficient – we are happy to hear your opinions and try and answer your questions no matter if you are coming from a young SME, a startup or wanting to adopt the training strategy.

By: Daniel Frohnmaier