Marine Institute welcomes Commission's proposal for Horizon 2020

Marine Institute CEO, Dr Peter Heffernan welcomed the Commission’s proposal, noting that marine research is very well represented in the draft text:

“Marine and maritime research is specifically mentioned in the Societal Challenge 'Food Security',  while reference is also made to environmentally friendly fishing, offshore aquaculture, marine biotechnology, the greening of maritime transport, renewable ocean energy, marine spatial planning and seabed mining, to mention a few. The very generic nature of the text and the bottom up approach to be adopted will provide many exciting and challenging opportunities for the Irish research community and knowledge-based SMEs," he said.

Of particular relevance is the accompanying proposal for a Council Decision, which states that “detailed priority setting during implementation of Horizon 2020 will entail a strategic approach to programming of research ...This cross-cutting approach to programming and governance will allow effective coordination between all of Horizon 2020's specific objectives and will allow to address challenges which cut across them, such as for instance sustainability, climate change or marine sciences and technologies”.

The strong representation of marine and maritime research in Horizon 2020 can be attributed to a number of factors including the adoption of an Integrated Maritime Policy for the European Union in 2007, strong representation from the European Marine Science Community (e.g. the Ostend Declaration, 2010) and the very positive impression of the benefits of marine and maritime research made to Commissioners Geoghegan-Quinn (DG Research and Innovation) and Damanacki (DG MARE) during their visit to the Marine Institute in September 2011.