Photo: Prof. Alan Deidun, Department of Geosciences, has once again been appointed as a member of the EU Commission’s Ocean Mission Board.
UM academic re-appointed as member of the EU’s Ocean Mission Board Missions are high-profile initiatives, rooted in research and innovation, which are tasked to deliver a transformative impact for society, the economy, and the environment by addressing the challenges, which are faced by European citizens.
Missions provide a clear target to measure success and a systemic approach which combines, for example, new knowledge and technology with innovations in business, finance, regulation, forms of governance, skills and social aspects. Missions operate as portfolios of actions and contribute extensively to EU policy goals, such as the European Green Deal, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan as well as to the Sustainable Development Goals. Through this approach, EU Missions engage Member States and incentivise them to align their efforts in areas that are of high concern to citizens.
Five EU Missions were defined and designed with the assistance of Commission expert groups (‘the Mission Boards’), established by the Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (‘DG RTD’) in 2019. These Mission Boards, which operate in compliance with the Commission’s horizontal rules on expert groups (the horizontal rules), advised the Commission on the identification of specific missions.
The composition of these Mission Boards was set up as a result of a public call for applications in 2019. As Missions have entered into implementation phase as of September 2021, it was necessary to renew the membership of the Mission Boards, following a new public call. While the first phase (ended in December 2021) of the Mission Boards focused on the identification and design of possible specific missions.
The second phase Mission Boards, which kicked off earlier this month, will play a vital role in advising on the implementation of the Missions, building on the work done during the first phase. The Missions have now entered in the implementation phase and the composition of Mission Boards has to reflect this changed role.
The Restore our Oceans and Waters Mission is one of the five Missions in question, being chaired by Pascal Lamy. Prof. Alan Deidun, resident academic within the Department of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science, was re-appointed on the Ocean Mission Board, along with fourteen other European experts hailing from a diverse array of expertise and backgrounds as well as different nationalities, after already serving, for two years, on the previous Ocean Mission Board.
The same Mission will help achieve the marine and freshwater targets of the European Green Deal, such as protecting 30% of the EU’s sea area and restoring marine eco-systems and 25,000km of free-flowing rivers. As one of its objectives, the Mission will prevent and eliminate pollution by, for example, reducing plastic litter at sea, nutrient losses and use of chemical pesticides by 50% and it will also contribute to make the blue economy climate-neutral and circular with net-zero maritime emissions. To reach these objectives the Mission is also putting in place two enablers:
- Digital Ocean and Water Knowledge System;
- Public mobilisation and engagement.
By adhering to the Mission Charter, a clear signal is sent on the importance of protecting our ocean and waters and to take concrete actions. Charter endorsers will be involved in major Mission fora and events and will have access to services and tools the Mission Ocean and Waters will deploy through the European Digital Twin Ocean, the Mission Implementation Platform and other coordination actions at basin level, as well as having access to tools to empower citizens to take action for the restoration of the ocean and waters.
