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Black Sea Projects

BRIDGE-BS

BRIDGE-BS aims to advance the Black Sea’s marine research and innovation to co-develop Blue Growth pathways under multi-stressors for the sustainable utilization of the ecosystem services. To do so it will develop an ecosystem-based management framework to enable policy uptake and foster citizen engagement. With a total budget of €9 million, BRIDGE-BS is set to run from June 2021 to November 2025. Bringing together a diverse and multinational collaboration, the consortium comprises 31 partners from 14 different countries, each contributing their expertise and knowledge under the coordination of METU-IMS.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HORIZON 2020)

The Black Sea Virtual Knowledge Centre (BSVKC)

The Black Sea Virtual Knowledge Centre (BSVKC) is a project supported by the European Commission (DG Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) and managed by the Permanent International Secretariat of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC PERMIS) for a duration of 24 months. The objective of the BSVKC is to provide a centralized platform for information on the Blue Economy in the Black Sea and to improve synergies between stakeholders and Blue Economy related projects in the region.
EU Funded

PIONEER

PIONEER is an European training network aiming at educating a generation of experts in the multidisciplinary field of plasma/catalysis for CO2 conversion. 14 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) work together in a joint training and doctoral programme, within a consortium of 15 academic  and 5 industrial partners, in 10 different countries, to conceive new systems of plasma/catalysis for an efficient conversion of CO2 molecule.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HORIZON 2020)

REST-COAST

REST-COAST project will bring together 38 partners to assess ecosystem services from coastal marshes, seabed meadows and coastal dunes, to reduce erosion and flooding risks while enhancing biodiversity and blue carbon. It will develop large-scale river-coast connectivity and increase the nearshore accommodation space for the resilient delivery of coastal ecosystem services. The project will conduct nine pilots in the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North, Atlantic and Mediterranean) with the aim of increasing the commitment of citizens, stakeholders and policymakers.
EU Funded

MARLITER(Improved online public access to environmental monitoring data and data tools for the Black Sea Basin supporting cooperation in the reduction of marine litter)

MARLITER is a project employing information technologies for better environmental monitoring at regional scale and decrease of solid waste in the marine environment. The project enhances international knowledge-based cooperation, information exchange and innovative capacity building between five partners – NGOs, higher education and research institutions – from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Romania and Ukraine. It addresses cross-border pollution with marine litter and its reduction in the Black Sea Basin. The project was launched in July 2018 and spans over 36 months.
Black Sea Basin Programme of European Union's Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC)

KEAC-BSR

The project establishes a network consisting of 12 research institutions from 11 BSR countries and Austria. It includes representatives of all the core disciplines of the humanities emerging around 1900. Innovative aspects of the project consist of 1) drawing attention to an emerging region (BSR) consisting of countries previously considered as belonging to separate historical regions, 2) systematic investigation of knowledge and culture exchange within and beyond the region, 3) innovative theoretical framework, 4) inter/multidisciplinary methodology and 5) explicit gender perspectives.
EU Funded

ANEMONE: Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures (ongoing)

ANEMONE aims to assess the status of the Black Sea, through collaborative efforts and harmonized methods among partners, which are National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa” (NIMRD) (Coordinator), Mare Nostrum, Institute of Oceanology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IO-BAS), Ukrainian Scientific Center of Ecology of Sea (UkrSCES), Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey – Marmara Research Center (TUBITAK-MAM) and Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TUDAV).
EU Funded

BS-ERA.NET Networking on Science and Technology in the Black Sea Region

This is an ERA-NET project for Networking on Science and Technology in The Black Sea Region and a framework to network and mutually open national and regional research, leading to concrete cooperation in the frame of a Black Sea Research Programme (BSRP), conducting the development and implementation of joint programmes and activities in the region.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7)

Black Sea SCENE and Upgrade Black Sea SCENE

The predecessor Black Sea SCENE project has established a Black Sea Scientific Network of leading environmental and socio-economic research institutes, universities and NGO’s from the countries around the Black Sea and has developed a distributed virtual data and information infrastructure that is populated and maintained by these organisations to improve the identification, access, exchange, quality indication and use of their data and information about the Black Sea.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP6)

COCONET (Towards COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (from the shore to the high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential)

CoCoNet focused on the Mediterranean and the Black Seas and its objectives were the production of: 1- Guidelines for the institution of networks of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs); 2 - Smart Wind Chart evaluating the feasibility of Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs).
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7)

DANUBIUS-RI: The International Centre for Advanced Studies on River Sea Systems

DANUBIUS-RI is a new pan-European, distributed Research Infrastructure, in the final year of its Preparatory Phase with funding from the European Union's HORIZON 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 739562. DANUBIUS-RI, which has been on the ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) Roadmap since 2016 and is a Flagship Project of EUSDR (EU Strategy for the Danube Region) is planned to become operational in 2023.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (HORIZON 2020)

Black Sea React! - Pilot innovative solutions for fighting marine litter in the Black Sea

 The Black Sea React! Project builds on the results of the High-level International Conference on “Inter-basin Cooperation on Marine Litter: A focus on the Danube River and the Black Sea” (Sofia, 4 April 2019), organised by the BSEC PERMIS and the ICBSS, with the support of the European Commission, and co-funded by the CEI Initiative. The conference debates and proceedings acknowledged that marine litter is a cross-border problem, which makes its management difficult and highly dependent on good regional (and international) collaboration between the littoral countries, as well as awareness raising.
EU Funded

DOORS

DOORS (Developing Optimal and Open Research Support for the Black Sea) is a €9m EU research project will link citizens, science, and industry for critical Black Sea regeneration, stimulating a new wave of ‘blue economy’ opportunities. We are bringing together the best expertise and technology from 35 institutions from the Black Sea region and European countries to address the human and climate change impacts in the marine ecosystem.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HORIZON 2020)

FORCOAST

The EU-funded project FORCOAST is developing, testing and demonstrating, in operational mode, novel Copernicus-based downstream information services that will incorporate Copernicus Marine, Land and Climate Services Products, local monitoring data and advanced modelling in the service. The services will integrate Copernicus Earth Observation Products with local models and other diverse data sources (local, regional or global) with ICT (enhancing new frontiers opened by web, and use of cloud) across the different market segments. FORCOAST will provide consistent coastal data products, based on a standardized data processing scheme.
 EU Funded

BLACK SEA CRUISE – Sustainable Small-scale Cruising/Yachting

The BLACK SEA CRUISE Project aims to analyse the state of play and environmental and socio-economic potential for novel small-scale cruising/yachting models, in order to support, through a final set of recommendations, the sustainable development of the activity in the Black Sea region. It will run for 24 months, under the coordination of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) in cooperation with eight local and regional partners, SML, CLIMAZUL, the “Ovidius” University of Constanta, the Sochi State University (2021), the Burgas Free University, the Odessa Maritime Academy, the Batumi State Maritime Academy and the Karadeniz Technical University.
EU Funded

LitOUTer - Raising Public Awareness and Reducing Marine Litter for Protection of the Black Sea Ecosystem

LitOUTer project enhances awareness-based neighborhood cooperation, cross-border information exchange, use innovative awareness methods between six partners (NGOs, higher education and scientific research institutes) from four countries which are Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, and Georgia. In the project, cultural differences will be considered, and raising awareness strategies will be developed to country-specific. With this project, correctly defined target groups, who are the most powerful impact to reduce litter in the source will be aware of litter impact on the human environment in the past, present and dominantly future.
Black Sea Basin Programme of European Union's Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC)

4BIZ – BOOSTING THE BLUE ECONOMY IN THE BLACK SEA REGION

The aim of the project is to address local capacity building needs to boost innovation, digitalisation and investment in the black sea blue economy. The main sectors would be fisheries and aquaculture, coastal and maritime tourism, as well as maritime transport. The collaboration framework will bring together blue economy stakeholders in the EU and eligible non-EU black sea countries. Duration: 24 months (01.06.2022 – 31.05.2024)
European Union’s European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF)

SeaChanges

SeaChanges is an international doctoral training network spanning archaeology and marine biology, which supports 15 fully-funded PhD projects across seven institutions in 6 countries. The network takes a long-term perspective on human exploitation of marine vertebrates, with projects covering species from herring to sperm whale, timescales from decades to millennia, and all of Europe's seas and beyond. SeaChanges is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) funded through the H2020 program of the European Union and started on 1 April 2019, finishing on 31 March 2023.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HORIZON 2020)

DALIA

DALIA project will bring together 22 expert organisations from eight EU and associated countries to properly manage this complex and fragile ecosystem. The project will provide an integrated tool for better decision-making and improved restoration of fresh and transitional water ecosystems in the Danube River Basin. DALIA will contribute to the EU Water Framework Directive. It will also collaborate with a wider network of ecosystems and related EU Missions and projects.
EU Funded

DEKOSIM: National Excellence Centre in Marine Ecosystem and Climate Research

The Centre for Marine Ecosystems and Climate Research (DEKOSIM) is the leading oceanographic research centre in Turkey and builds upon 40 years experience of METU Institute of Marine Sciences. Established in 2012, DEKOSIM is currently able to conduct regional comprehensive oceanographic research, including the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Although DEKOSIM has reached a certain level of research excellence, the region is still under-researched with a limited capacity and infrastructure to explore integrated atmosphere- land-marine interactions and processes.
Turkey

EMBLAS-PLUS: Improving Environmental Monitoring in the Black Sea

The project will be implemented in the context of the ENI Regional East Strategy Paper (2014-2020)6; Regional East Multiannual Indicative Programme (2017-2020) and the Joint Operational Programme for the Black Sea Basin 2014-20208. The project is part of the ENI East Regional Action Programme 2017, Part 2: Support to the Implementation of the Eastern Partnership Multilateral Dimension and the Implementation of the Northern Dimension and the Black Sea Synergy.
Selected Measures – EU / UNDP

ERA.Net RUS Strengthening STI links between Russia and the European Research Area

The project will be implemented in the context of the ENI Regional East Strategy Paper (2014-2020)6; Regional East Multiannual Indicative Programme (2017-2020) and the Joint Operational Programme for the Black Sea Basin 2014-20208. The project is part of the ENI East Regional Action Programme 2017, Part 2: Support to the Implementation of the Eastern Partnership Multilateral Dimension and the Implementation of the Northern Dimension and the Black Sea Synergy.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7)

MISIS Black Sea Marine Atlas

MISIS Black Sea Marine Atlas is a GIS application that provides user-friendly information to decision-makers on to the open public and facilitates the monitoring of Black Sea waters. Web-based coastal atlas plays an important role in informing regional decision and policy making across a variety of themes and it also represents a portal to coastal data and information from diverse sources.
Financed by the EC

MARSPLAN-BS II: Cross-border Maritime Spatial Planning for Black Sea

The Ministry of Regional Development, Public Administration and European Funds coordinates the implementation of the Cross-Border Maritime Spatial Plan for the Black-Sea – Romania and Bulgaria (MARSPLAN - BS), which purpose is to contribute to ensuring an integrated approach for the entire Black Sea cross-border area between Romania and Bulgaria in order to implement in the two countries, the provisions of Directive 2014/89/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the maritime spatial planning.
Bulgaria and Romania (funded by the European Commission (DG MARE), Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) of the European Union

B-SEENOVA

The Black Sea Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) delivers services that support innovation and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Black Sea area in Turkey. The EU-funded B-SEENOVA project will help SMEs improve their innovation management capacity in the Middle and East Black Sea regions providing services for enhancing innovation management capacity (EIMC). The project will support 59 SMEs that have proven capable of growth and internationalisation with tailored actions to increase their innovation management capacities. The project aims to raise the Black Sea area's SMEs' awareness of H2020 SME Instrument calls and support them in preparing proposals.
H2020 SME Instrument Calls

Blueing the Black Sea

In support of the Common Maritime Agenda, the Blueing the Black Sea (BBSEA) Program supported by the World Bank and its partners would be aming at catalyzing blue economy investments for the Black Sea.  The initial step of building a coherent BBSEA Program is focused on the Pillar 1 “Save the Sea” that is aiming at reducing pollution in the Black Sea. Although the proposed Project would benefit all Black Sea countries through knowledge exchange and standards building, national level activity would take place only in the four GEF eligible countries (Georgia, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine) in accordance with GEF policies in the current context of the Black Sea. 
The World Bank, GEF Grant - International Water  

EUROFLEETS+

EUROFLEETS+ is an H2020 project funded under the Infrastructures initiative, coordinated by the Marine Institute that brings together a significant group of key marine research actors (in particular research vessel operators) in Europe, North America and Oceania  – 42 marine institutes, universities, foundations and SMEs from 24 countries. The project will enable access to a unique fleet of 27 state-of-the-art research vessels from European and international partners. EUROFLEETS+  will extend and enhance the capabilities of the European research vessel infrastructure, bringing new perspectives, new ideas, and new research and innovation tracks.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (HORIZON 2020)

CulTourE4Youth Supporting Youth Entrepreneurship in Cultural Tourism for Coastal Communities

Under the coordination of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) in cooperation with the Balkans and Black Sea Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR) and the METU Institute of Marine Sciences, CulTourE4Youth Project aims to develop a regional paradigm as capacity building initiator in order to increase the knowledge and entrepreneurial culture of young people, to be able to meet market demands and identify business opportunities; promote sustainable coastal tourism practices to develop new products, services and processes for sustainable cultural tourism; motivate employers, educational institutions, policy makers and civil society, and facilitate synergies among them, to support youth entrepreneurship with concrete actions.
EU Funded

EcoDaLLi - Ecosystem-based governance with Danube lighthouse Living Lab for sustainable Innovation processes

The main objective of EcoDaLLi is to centralise Danube governance structures in terms of innovative solutions for improved ecological restoration, protection and preservation of the Danube basin and its Delta by fostering a stronger innovation ecosystem within a well-connected Practices Living Lab System, supported by a digital Portal, completly linked to the Mission Implementation Platform. EcoDaLLi supports innovators connect to governance structures, providing and maintaining networks, trough dedicated Living Labs for knowledge co-creation, workshops, a custom made digital portal for synergies, and innovation support services, to experiment with new solutions, helping the innovation ecosystem to create circular services towards Sustainable Blue Economy in the Danube Basin and beyond.
Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Programme of European Union (HORIZON EUROPE)

DANUBE4all

DANUBE4all is an EU ‘Lighthouse Initiative’ in support of Mission “Restore our ocean and waters by 2030". This 5-year, Horizon Europe funded project consists of a consortium of 48 Partners and Associated Partners from 14 European countries. DANUBE4all aims to restore freshwater ecosystems in the Danube River Basin through the development of a comprehensive, scientifically-based and practically-orientated Restoration Action Plan (RAPDRB).
EU Funded

EmpowerUs

The EU-funded EmpowerUs project will develop a network of six transition coastal labs across EU coastal regions promoting new effective methodologies for inclusive policymaking. EmpowerUs is a €6 million, three-year project that will empower coastal communities to transition towards more resilient, inclusive and sustainable coastal development. It will enhance social innovation and self-sustainability, allowing the optimisation of each community and pushing for a greener future.
EU Funded

MASRI (Infrastructure for sustainable development of marine research linked to the membership of Bulgaria in Euro-Argo EU infrastructure)

MASRI is a Project of the national roadmap for scientific infrastructure (2017-2023), as a component of the Operational Program” Science and education for smart growth” coordinated by the Institute of Oceanology- BAS.  It is aimed at integration of national marine research capacity of all 8 partners into a distributed large-scale, interdisciplinary multifunctional (physics, chemistry, biology, geology, aquacultures, medicine, energy, underwater and offshore technologies) marine research infrastructure that will provide unique facilities (including databases and computer network) widely accessible at national, regional and international level for multidisciplinary research.
Bulgaria

PEGASO – People for Ecosystem-based Governance in Assessing Sustainable development of Ocean and coast

This project was cross-basin effort for further developing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The main objective of PEGASO was to build on existing capacities and apply common novel approaches to support integrated policies for the coastal, marine and maritime realms of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Basins in ways, that are consistent with and relevant to the implementation of the ICZM Protocol in the Mediterranean, and for adjusting and applying the same model to the needs of the Black Sea.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7)

PERSEUS (Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research in the Southern EUropean Seas)

The PERSEUS project studied the dual impact of human activity and natural pressures on the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The project combined natural and socio-economic sciences to predict the long-term effects of these pressures on marine ecosystems.  The key to solving environmental problems on seas and coasts lies with a research governance framework that engages scientists, policymakers and the public. The PERSEUS project developed such a scheme, which resulted in a shared understanding and science-based decisions in line with tools like the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7)

SEAS-ERA Towards Integrated Marine Research Strategy and Programmes

SEAS-ERA was a partnership of the leading Marine R&D Funding Organisations in 18 countries, including Black Sea EU and non-EU countries. In brief, SEAS-ERA aimed to constitute a platform for developing a European integrated policy oriented structure to promote knowledge and expertise in any sea related area; the overarching element of SEAS-ERA, was its ambition to embrace the whole spectrum of marine and maritime research, making it an open forum for knowledge sharing, a real arena where all the sea related knowledge can meet.
EU Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) ERA-NET