Two new EC Horizon 2020 projects in the field of blue growth from METU Institute of Marine Sciences

The proposal "BRIDGE-BS: Advancing Black Sea Research and Innovation to Co-Develop Blue Growth within Resilient Ecosystems" submitted as coordinator to the "H2020-BG-2018-2020" call under the lead of Prof. Dr. Barış Salihoğlu and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mustafa Yücel from the Institute of Marine Sciences of our University has been accepted for funding.

The project, which was ranked first, has a budget of 9 Million Euros and a consortium of 33 partner organizations from 7 Black Sea coastal countries, 8 European Union member states and international entities. BRIDGE-BS is also the EU H2020 project with the highest number of Turkish partners to date.

Moreover, BRIDGE-BS is the second multi-partner project coordinated by a Turkish organization in the field of Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine, Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy. The first multi-partner project coordinated by a Turkish organization in this field is the Black Sea CONNECT project, also coordinated by Prof. Barış Salihoğlu and Assoc. Prof. Mustafa Yücel from the Institute of Marine Sciences.

Under the same call, the project proposal titled "DOORS: Developing Optimal and Open Research Support for the Black Sea", within which the Institute of Marine Sciences is one of the major partners, has also been accepted for funding by being ranked second. The DOORS consortium will include 37 partner organizations from 16 countries and Assoc. Prof. Bettina Fach Salihoğlu and Assist. Prof. Devrim Tezcan are the principal investigators on behalf of the Institute of Marine Sciences.

These two projects, of which the Institute of Marine Sciences has achieved two great successes under the BG-11-2020 call, will be the two main implementing actions supporting the Black Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda. While the BRIDGE-BS project focuses on ecosystem resilience, services, and development of the blue economy; the complementary DOORS project will focus on developing integrated observing systems, land-sea interactions, and the deep sea.