European Marine Science Applications Consortium (EMSAC)

Pole Mer Bretagne, a parner of EMSAC project, organised three workshops in 2012 to bring ressearch, industry and public authority partners together.

Three interactive workshops to identify innovation opportunities exploiting leading-edge marine science and technology.

Call open : 26 March 2012
Submission deadline: 30 May 2012

Context

EMSAC (European Marine Science Applications Consortium) is a Regions of Knowledge project within the seventh European Framework Program, in which Europole Mer is an active partner. This call aims at supporting pilot research and/or research & development projects within the EMSAC topics framework.

Based on the cooperation of 4 European regions (South East England, South West Sweden, Brittany, and South of France-PACA), the EMSAC project aims at developing research and development projects focused on water resources management in coastal and estuarine waters with the view of addressing the gaps of knowledge and skills in 3 specific areas:
· Water quality management
· Coastal risk management
· Living resources management

General scheme

This Call for projects aims at supporting initiatives by members of Europole Mer to initiate pilot research or R&D projects that address a gap that was identified by the EMSAC project. There is no restriction neither on the type of project proposed nor on the type of expenditures attached to it.

The expected outcomes for the Europole Mer scientific community of selected projects are:
- To help address a gap in knowledge on one or several topics pointed out by the EMSAC project as relevant to water resources management ;
- To enhance interactions between Europole Mer members, Pole Mer Bretagne companies
(http://www.pole-mer-bretagne.com/), and other EMSAC partners.

For a list of EMSAC partners see /en/emsac.php

Who may apply

All members from Europole Mer may apply to this call. However, proposals from Europole Mer members that are actively involved in EMSAC (i.e. UBO, CNRS, ENSTA Bretagne, and SHOM) will have priority.
Projects involving a company that is a member of Pole Mer Bretagne, and / or an EMSAC partner, are also encouraged.

Budget

- Total budget of scheme is 56 000 €. Financial support from Europole Mer is up to 35 000 € per project.

Dates

- Start of proposed project may be anytime as of 1 July 2012.- End of proposed project must be no later than 31 December 2013.

Selection criteria

Required
- The project must show some innovation scientifically relevant to some part of the Europole Mer community
- Project’s content should be in line with one or several gap(s) as identified by the EMSAC project

Desirable
- Partnership as indicated above (see the ‘Who may apply’ section)

- Potential economic applications (e.g. point out services that may stem from the project in the longer term).

Selected projects

3 projects were selected:

- Development of new offshore rearing systems for shellfish culture (abalone, scallop and other species): Adapting equipment to open sea conditions, species behavior and welfare. Led by Sabine Roussel (IUEM);

- Groundwater fluxes in the coastal zone in Southern Brittany: the unknown part of coastal freshwater resources. Led by Thomas Stieglitz (IUEM)

- GREEn macroalgal driven eutrophication and ecosystem functioning: iMPACTs on biodiversity dynamics, food web structure and flat-fish nurseries (GREEMPACT). Led by Jacques Grall (IUEM)

All the EMSAC project partners.

Kick-off meeting

22 Feb 2010 - Brussels

The kick off meeting was the opportunity to gather all partners and to cover all the necessary management requirements for the project start. The meeting was largely spent on reviewing the aim of the call (Regions of Knowledge), issues related to contract, project delivery & management, communication and dissemination as well as schedule and actions to carry out.

A gap analysis was carried out between the Key Markets and their related innovation needs / priorities (work package 2 - WP2) and the inventory of the RTD skills and capabilities devoted to a better knowledge of the marine and maritime environment. A database was build for this inventory (WP3).

A survey and analysis of RTD projects relating to coastal water quality management was carried out.