COLUMBUS Knowledge Transfer for Blue Growth - first year success
The COLUMBUS project, looking to improve knowledge transfer for blue growth, completed its first year recently and has been successfully promoting its awareness at a number of key events across Europe.
The project has been represented at major events such as the European Maritime Day in Finland, Ocean Week in Norway, European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Austria, European Seafood Expo in Belgium and Oceanology International in the UK; and has successfully interacted with partners from all stakeholder groups including policy, industry, society and the scientific community.
COLUMBUS has a dedicated Work Package entitled "Communication, Engagement and Knowledge Transfer towards a Blue Society", led by Nausicaá in France, which supports the implementation of COLUMBUS through dissemination and other strategic communication/engagement activities.
Objectives include enhancing the visibility and impact of marine and maritime research in society; strengthening the exploitation of knowledge and technological developments in the marine and maritime sector; and, ensuring the effective communication of the project's objectives, activities and results.
In May last year, the European Commission (EC) launched an Information Sharing Platform on Marine and Maritime Research http://cordis.europa.eu/packs/marine-information-platform_en.html to support "Innovation in the Blue Economy". In addition there is more information on the European Parliament's Resolution of September 2015 on "Untapping the potential of research and innovation in the blue economy to create jobs and growth". The platform, currently in its pilot stage, shares available research data and key results from EU-funded projects related to the marine and maritime research sectors. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P8-TA-2015-0291
In cooperation with the respective Project Coordinators of the 31 FP7 Oceans of Tomorrow projects, the COLUMBUS project collected over 500 Knowledge Outputs, of which 456 exploitable results were extracted to populate this pilot platform. This collection of knowledge from research projects facilitates the uptake of new ideas, research results, data, products and services by industry, policy makers, civil society and other interested parties. This platform is an example of sharing results from European funded projects as soon as possible; thus supporting the concept of Open Science.
The COLUMBUS project is focused on utilising a novel Knowledge Transfer methodology to provide support and solutions for Blue Growth and implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. The Knowledge Outputs collected to support the implementation of the EC's pilot platform will be analysed by COLUMBUS where they will be considered for further transfer to target users.
To keep up-to-date on future events where COLUMBUS will be represented, make sure to visit the COLUMBUS website often. To organise an introduction to one of the COLUMBUS partners at an event, please contact the Project Manager, Cliona Ní Cheallacháin (email: cliona@aquatt.ie or tel: +353 (0) 1 644 9008 or visit http://www.columbusproject.eu/
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