Marine SABRES General Assembly
Some recent updates on our Marine SABRES project before we break for the holidays
Marine SABRES General Assembly (October 7th - 10th, Madeira)
Another year of Marine SABRES has drawn to a close and we gathered in Madeira for four days to celebrate, and plan for the next one! For the first day of our meeting our project coordinator Emma Verling kicked things off bright and early for a morning and afternoon of administrative updates. In these sessions our Work Package leads took to the floor to discuss their overall progress, the Milestones and Deliverables they have achieved, and how their work to date will contribute to the progress in Year 3 of our project.
Following on from our administrative updates, the Marine SABRES consortium faced into the three day event to:
Present on key developments and challenges within the project,
Discuss work in our Arctic Demonstrations Sites
Facilitate a 'Shared Experience Workshop' which brought together members of the consortium to discuss and improve the Simple Social-Ecological System (sSES) approach,
and much much more!
Shared Experiences Workshop
As part of the Marine SABRES’ annual meeting in Madeira, a workshop was organised that brought together members of the consortium to discuss and improve the Simple Social-Ecological System (sSES) approach as a key output of the project. Organised by Kathrine Kopke, Julie Bremner, Frances Mynott, Mike Elliott, and Gemma Smith, the workshop aimed to update everyone on the progress of the refinement of the Simple SES guidance and to gather feedback from the group to guide the final stages of development. The session began with Kathrine Kopke introducing the goals of the day. This was followed by Gemma Smith, who explained how the SES models are being refined and what the next steps will be.
To encourage diverse perspectives, participants were grouped in a way that ensured a mix of specialisms and geographical regions of the consortium members. This helped ensure that insights were not limited to one area or expertise. In the first activity, participants were asked to share one concern and one positive aspect about the SES models. They wrote their thoughts on post-it notes and shared them with their group. This helped surface a variety of views, which will be used to inform the ongoing refinement process.
Marine SABRES at ECSA 60
Our Marine SABRES colleagues Gemma Smith and Mike Elliott (IECS Ltd.), joined academics from around the world in Hangzhou, China, to explore an urgent question: ‘How can we better protect our coasts and oceans while balancing human needs?’ as part of ECSA 60! The event was the 60th meeting of the Estuarine & Coastal Sciences Association (ECSA), a group dedicated to the promotion and advancement of multidisciplinary research into all aspects of estuaries and coasts, and the application of science and technology for their sustainable environmental management.
Read Gemma and Mike’s reflections on this event at the following link!
Project Updates from our Arctic Demonstration Area!
Our MarineSABRES partners at the Hafrannsóknastofnun - Marine & Freshwater Research Institute have been making waves in our Arctic Demonstration Area, focusing on the marine environments around the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. Their aim? To build a practical and user-friendly Simple Socio-Ecological System (Simple SES) tool that empowers decision-makers and communities to support sustainable marine practices.
Learn more about what they've been up to in Sandra Rybicki's recent news update on our project website, which covers the following topics:
Pelagic Fisheries in Focus 🎣
Stakeholder-Driven Insights 💬
Workshop in Iceland 🇮🇸
What’s Next? 🚀
MarineSABRES at CommOCEAN 22024
Our communication and dissemination work package lead Kathrin Kopke (MaREI, UCC), represented the Marine SABRES project at this year's CommOCEAN 20204 Conference which took place from the 26-27 November, in Málaga, Spain!
CommOCEAN is a unique international marine science communication conference that is held every two years, and aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding in marine contexts, and celebrates innovative approaches to science communication and the improvement in ocean literacy.
Kathrin was not only part of the organising comittee attending as a representative of the European Marine Board Communication Panel (EMBCP), but also chaired 'Session 8: Sound & Vision', which was designed to focus on the diverse and creative approaches science communicators took to bring marine science to their audiences.
Recent Activities
Our Marine SABRES partners have been keeping busy since our General Assembly in Madeira, here’s just some handfull of exciting activities they have been involved in!
Serious Games School Competition | (21st November 2024) - Our partners at LifeWatch ERIC successfully launched the very first Marine SABRES Serious Games School Competition in the Canary Islands this month with support from University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) , through the ECOAQUA Institute. The Serious Games School Competition is designed to raise awareness of the importance of well-functioning marine ecosystems by involving young citizens (aged 10-18 years old) from across Europe in informal online education activities!
Tropical Summit in Lisbon | (4-8 November 2024) Laura Caciagli and Ant Türkmen participated in the “Biodiversity and digitalisation” section of the Exhibition Hall at this year’s Tropical Summit, providing information about the Marine SABRES project, and showing their documentary trailer which focuses on our Macronesia Demonstration Area!
Learn more about the Marine SABRES project at www.marinesabres.eu.
