WP8 Interaction with stakeholders and capacity building

A Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum will enable the EcoScope team to co-design their tools with stakeholders and receive feedback on their implementation and effectiveness. At the end of the project, the performance of the forum and stakeholder involvement will be evaluated.

Sub-task 8.1.1. Stakeholder management planning

The Task leaders will develop a stakeholder management plan linked to the Communications Plan developed in WP10. The stakeholder management plan will include:

• Identification of communication methods (for different stakeholders), • Schedule and responsibility of actions, • Success criteria, • Post project planning (what happens to the forum at the end? What will be the legacy?), • Connection with WP10 Communication and Outreach, and • Planning of events, social media, stakeholder recruitment and management.

Sub-task Duration: M1-M3 – Sub-task Leader: EMB - Participants: AUTH, BLIT, UOM, Thalassa

Sub-task 8.1.2. Stakeholder mapping

In this task the stakeholders of the project will be identified and mapped following the identification and review of existing stakeholder mapping initiatives from the project and external community. The stakeholders will be categorized by type (e.g. decision maker, fishers’ association, tourism organization, NGO, end-user), level of influence (local, national, EU, global), and contact details and they will form the Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum. The stakeholder mapping will start in month 1, with an initial stakeholder mapping delivered in month 3 for use in the stakeholder co-design meetings, but the mapping will continue until the end of the project.

Sub-task Duration: M1-M48 – Sub-task Leader: Thalassa – Participants: All partners Duration: M1-M48 – Task Leader: Thalassa – Participants: All partners

Sub-task 8.2.1. Identifying the needs of policy makers and stakeholders

This task will map/scope the policy needs and emerging tools, strategies and/or roadmaps for ecosystem modelling. These include, but are not limited to the Oceans and Human Health strategic research agenda developed by H2020 SOPHIE, the Planning documents for the UN Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, new EU policy document such as the European Green Deal and the Digital Twin Ocean, and EMB foresight publications on Ecosystem Modelling, Navigating the Future V, and Valuing Marine Ecosystem Services. These scoping documents will be links to other outputs and tools in Europe, and globally (such as linking to the modelling requirements for IPBES, and the Ocean Decade). This task will also include the design and analysis of a survey of policy makers in Europe, on their requirements for the EcoScope Toolbox. Data collection will take place as part of Task 8.3.

Sub-task Duration: M1-M9 – Sub-task Leader: EMB - Participants: All partners

Sub-task 8.2.2. Foresight workshop 1: Policy Maker and Stakeholder requirements workshop

During this workshop the team will bring together the policy makers and stakeholders that will use the EcoScope Toolbox as well as experts in the field of toolbox development from the consortium, to co-design a toolbox that can deliver what is required by policy makers and other stakeholders. In addition, the workshop will include the ocean observation and ocean database community, to ensure that all possible data are used to enhance the EcoScope Toolbox and be included in the EcoScope Platform that will cover all European Seas. The workshop will also link with JRC’s MEME group, which is linking hydrodynamic, biogeochemical and food web models to address MSFD indicators.

Sub-task Duration: M1-M12 – Sub-task Leader: EMB – Participants: WP leaders

Sub-task 8.2.3: EcoScope indicator implementation workshop

The vulnerability and risk assessments undertaken of WP4, the ecosystem assessments of WP5 and MSP Challenge games of WP6 will be presented to relevant stakeholders such as the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMO), ICES and FAO in a workshop, which will aim to stimulate debate on the necessity of including climate change in fisheries management and the importance of ecosystem based fisheries management. The MSP Challenge simulation platform -EM fishing edition that will be created in WP6 will be tested and validated based on time-line analysis and user/expert participation in the Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum meeting during the last year of the project where the MSP Challenge-EM Fishing Edition will be assessed. This interactive simulation platform will then be incorporated into the EcoScope Academy (Task 8.4). This stakeholder workshop will build on the outcomes of WPs 4, 5, 6 and 7 and will discuss the challenges of implementing and linking economic and ecological indicators.

Sub-task Duration: M28-M36 – Sub-task Leader: CNR – Participants: WP leaders, GEOMAR, UBC, CEBC, EMB

Sub-task 8.2.4. Foresight workshop 2: Future requirements for ecosystem based sustainable management

Toward the latter stages of the project, when the EcoScope toolbox is delivered, we will consider the future needs. We foresee that within the 4 years of this project, new, yet unknown, ecosystem challenges will occur. We therefore propose a foresight workshop toward the end of the project, to highlight the achievements of the project, to launch the EcoScope Toolbox, and to address these unknown challenges. We will be 3 years into the Ocean Decade, with a possibility of taking stock of what is needed to achieve societal outcomes of the Decade for a predicted and sustainably harvested ocean, but also how that might link up with the transparent ocean, healthy ocean and clean ocean. For sustainable ecosystem- based management we will need to bring together the ocean observation and modelling communities, as well as users and National and International Funders. This will need the help of funders such as JPI-Oceans in terms of links with funders at National level but also the European Commission, UNESCO and the World Bank and these stakeholders will also be invited to this workshop. The MSP Challenge simulation platform -EM fishing edition that will be created in WP6 will be tested and validated based on time-line analysis and user/expert participation in a stakeholder workshop during the yearly EcoScope Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum meeting during the last year of the project where the MSP Challenge-EM Fishing Edition will be assessed. This interactive simulation platform will then be incorporated into the EcoScope Academy (Task 8.4).

Sub-task Duration: M40-M48 – Sub-task Leader: EMB – Participants: WP leaders

This task will involve data collection and analysis of surveys conducted among diverse stakeholders with the intent of answering questions, such as: What do stakeholders want from the EcoScope Τoolbox? How appropriate is the EcoScope survey (Task 8.3.2)? and What constitutes EcoScope’s stakeholders’ socio-economic preferences?

Subtask 8.3.1. Ecoscope toolbox survey

This survey will be conducted among European Commission policy makers (DG MARE, DG RTD, DG Grow, and others) in M4 to gauge their specific requirements for the EcoScope Toolbox. The data will therefore yield insights early on in the project to assist in the design of the toolbox useful for Task 8.2.

Sub-task Duration: M1-M8 – Sub-task Leader: EMB – Participants: AUTH, BLIT, UOM, NIVA

Subtask 8.3.2. Ecoscope survey pilot & ongoing stakeholder responses

Early piloting of the survey will be conducted among 20-30 key stakeholders participating in the workshops, at the same time yielding baseline data for comparison with the results of the main surveys. Once designed (as part of WP7), the survey will be available online to collect data throughout the project lifetime (and beyond) among stakeholders, workshop attendees and participants in capacity building exercises (estimated at 200-500- see Task 7.1). These data will allow us to gauge the profile of our stakeholders and sub-samples thereof, in contrast with the specific populations we target in WP8. It will allow us to follow trends that occur over time and to infer impacts of capacity building events. Permission will be sought in accordance with GDPR regulations, to maintain contact with stakeholders for communication at different levels as part of WP10.

Sub-task Duration: M12-M42 – Sub-task Leader: UOM – Participants: EMB, NIVA, BLIT

The aim of this task is to share the knowledge and methodologies created in EcoScope in the form of an online academy that will become the educational pillar of the project and will promote cross community education and knowledge sharing. The EcoScope Academy, hosted in EcoScopium public portal, will offer a website explaining the scope, the processes and the products of the EcoScope project and will offer a variety of online courses, webinars, digital games and other digital material that will serve different learning audiences (scientists, fishers, policy makers, students, public) and goals.

The EcoScope Academy will include:

(1) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC): self-paced online courses which will contain video-based activities with interactive transcripts, assessment activities, e-books, PDFs and certifications delivered via Udemy (or similar).

(2) Live webinars which will later be offered as online courses of the recorded sessions.

(3) Hybrid courses for supporting the related workshops, training courses and other activities.

(4) Virtual style actions - webinars (e.g. safety in changing climate).