03 / 04 / 2020
Illustration: BANOS
In the last days of March, close to 100 representatives of policy, research funds and institutions dealing with marine, maritime and socio-economic issues, together with the scientific community of the 13 Baltic and North Sea countries confirmed the broad themes of the future Baltic and North Sea Research and Innovation Programme (BANOS).
The draft Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (BANOS SRIA) – prepared by a dedicated drafting team consisting of over 20 experts of their fields – has been widely consulted during the three days online workshop. The SRIA will ultimately provide the basis for the future BANOS calls for interdisciplinary and transnational projects that will seek to generate new knowledge and innovation in support of the decision-making in the Baltic and North Sea regions. By involving policy-makers in this early stage of the drawing this R&I agenda, it is ensured that all knowledge and innovation generated by the program will effectively meet the needs of the actual end users.
The BANOS program will focus on three strategic objectives: (1) healthy seas and coasts, (2) sustainable blue economy and (3) human well-being. In addition, there are nine more specific objectives and a total of 30 research and innovation themes grouped under one of the three major themes.
“The development of the BANOS SRIA is a process which means that it will continue to be updated regularly in order to keep it responding to the realities we operate in”, added Dr. Karoliina Koho, the coordinator of the entire SRIA process. “Also, it is the ecosystem-based management which forms truly the precondition for achieving all these objectives and the scope of the entire programme is defined by three key attributes of ‘close connection to the ecosystem’, ‘dependence on climate impact’ and ‘geographic relevance to the Baltic and North Sea’.”
Now the numerous suggestions received during the workshop will be scrutinized by the drafting team and SRIA will be finalized in the coming months. The next important step towards launching the BANOS Programme will be designing the mechanisms for its funding and implementation.
While drawing up the BANOS SRIA, the interests of the Flemish marine and maritime research community were defended by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), in close consultation with the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation (EWI) of the Flemish government. For example, all objectives suggested in the draft version and underlying research and innovation themes were consulted with the 118 Marine Research Groups active in Belgium through the VLIZ Scientific Committee.
Read more about the objectives of the BANOS CSA (BAltic and NOrth Sea Coordination and Support Action) in a previous news item (2018) and the flyer.
Consult VLIZ' international relations director Ann-Katrien Lescrauwaet if you want more information on the BANOS CSA and the development of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (BANOS SRIA): annkatrien.lescrauwaet@vliz.be | + 32-(0)475-49 34 52