Lessons Learned for Focus Groups Methodology

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Milestone 1

• Keep in mind the local context to answer local needs and specificities;
• Plan the stakeholders carefully to ensure that the right people, stakeholder groups and organisations are in the room;
• Realize a complete inventory of local skills needed for the topic of academic actors, start-ups or companies already established in the region;
• Offer an incentive for citizens in order to attract people to attend at the workshop;
• Find a topic which will attract different stakeholders;
• Use dialog for initiating collaboration among private landowners and municipalities;
• Involve all interested stakeholders;
• Recruit participants based on their interest, research, business or experience related to the workshop topic.

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Milestone 2

• Provide a good incentive and personal benefits to motivate people to attend the workshop(s) and processes;
• Present the topic approached from the beginning of the workshop;
• Use using storytelling to describe the challenge with clear and concrete examples;
• Address a specific subject that concerns multidisciplinary stakeholders;
• Make the MARINA platform a case study platform where collaborative coastal climate solution projects are presented;
• Present the Mobilisation and Mutual Learning and RRI approach;
• Be aware about the participants motivations to attend a workshop such as to learn from others participants;
• Raise awareness of the general public on the environmental impact of offshore installations at all stages (building, exploitation, dismantling).

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Milestone 3

• Allocate more time for group discussions during workshops;
• Use methods that offer to the participants the opportunity to interact and to have open discussions;
• Explain the participatory method used to the participants as clearly and in a shorter time;
• Choose a familiar methodology for participants;
• Offer a clear explanation of the methodology used in order to be as clear as possible for the participants;
• Use a method that gives the opportunity to all participants to express their opinion;
• Continue to engage the stakeholders for knowledge exchange after the workshop;
• Make the workshops highly participatory and interactive;
• Allocate sufficient time for discussions and to involve all participants interests and ideas;
• Engage stakeholders from different sectors of activity;
• Remember that apart from being scientists, teachers, policy-makers, they are all citizens of coastal cities who want to care for the environment as a private person;
• Adapt the workshop schedule and structure according to the specifics and program of the stakeholders you want to attend;
• Use common words so that non scientists participants can understand and contribute to the discussion without being overwhelmed by scientific language;
• Choose a method which will produce a large amount of data on a topic in a short time;
• Invite and encourage different stakeholders to participate at this kind of workshops;
• Develop concrete examples that stakeholders can understand and get involved;
• Create the opportunity to network and discuss, in order to identify the key marine and societal challenges for the Wave Energy Sector;
• Assign participants to a specific table according to gender, type of organization/institution, type of expertise in the field, main interest in general to ensure multidisciplinarity;
• Make a clear presentation of the debated issue and its current status;
• Stimulate and ensure open dialogue among the attendees;
• Use of different communications platforms/technologies to communicate with stakeholders and make data accessible;
• Use new communications channels and IT technologies as opportunities to engage with communities;
• Push for multi-stakeholders' representation and input from all relevant actors;
• Develop webinars for cross-sectorial stakeholder engagement;
• Workshops may participants convince about RRI, but doesn't tend to help them in the concrete application of RRI in their daily work;
• Plan the programme to encourage as much opportunity for interactions between participants;
• Multiply events where researchers from academia and industry exchange with a broader community to enhance this community and its visibility;
• Empower all stakeholder groups to co-create sustainable value propositions that reflect societal needs and support healthy marine environments thanks to RRI dimensions.

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Milestone 4

• Let different perspectives on the subject, which will lead to a common background for further discussion;
• Give all participants the opportunity to discuss and generate ideas;
• Allocate time for every participant to present his/her idea and to discuss it in plenum;
• Allocate time for every participant to present his/her own idea and to discuss it in plenum;
• Do not interfere too much with the topics participants chose to focus on, it mostly depends on individual needs/experience and knowledge;
• Find the best way to incorporate the multi-disciplinary element into the organisation of the workshop;
• Capture the content in a way that is more free-flowing which is later interpreted by the workshop team;
• Activate citizens as a resourceful group of action that could lead to a more innovative and including society;
• Increase the level of awareness of Marine Spatial Planning process and it's implication in coastal communities and for all stakeholders;
• Have proactive public participation from stakeholders, in particular from government and industry;
• Encourage and promote marine involvement for all stakeholders;
• Promote best practice cross sectorial stakeholder engagement processes through webinars;
• Focus on the concept and its tools when explaining RRI to participants.

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Milestone 5

• Implement a coherent national monitoring programme;
• Engage local communities in awareness raising event;
• Apply a long-term and crosscutting strategic planning by defining SMART common vision and actions;
• Develop a stakeholder engagement plan;
• Learn from education, rather than experience, is necessary to avoid climate changes impact;
• Include marine/environmental education in school curricula;
• Try to obtain clear actions from people from different areas of interest, but targeting the common vision;
• Develop new models and ways of collaborating on climate change in order to create common knowledge and more awareness of climate change in public mind;
• Develop new methods of governance for engaging citizens through public awareness and politics;
• Develop case studies on how municipalities work with climate change projects and community driven innovation;
• Develop tools for engaging citizens in urban development and communicate them broadly to inspire local communities;
• Develop a national strategy for coastal management and coastal protection;
• Develop a coastal protection strategy that is fit for purpose by all stakeholders;
• Developing a spatial plan specific to zoning of areas of offshore renewables;
• Develop a clear communications strategy;
• Develop a GIS information database;
• Use of research and data sets to ensure that decisions are made to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders;
• Identify easy-to-implement solutions to attract people and harbour-related businesses in innovative harbour development;
• Plan what to do with buildings/installations which have been created while building wind farms;
• Encourage the production of socially and environmentally acceptable solutions and services with the science education of business and industry professionals.

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Milestone 6

• Develop sustainable and long-term solutions even if they do not entirely focus on technical and/or economic aspects, but add lifestyle qualities and/or facilities;
• Identify common working initiatives between municipalities and the civil societies, so that citizens may be actively involved;
• Consider Governance as a common responsibility of citizens and decision makers;
• Promote and develop responsible and sustainable tourism in a changing environment;
• Use rational the natural resources, with maximum economy;
• Education is the most important aspect that can accelerate social change and climate change mitigation;
• Create a path to open information on climate changes topic and related data;
• Change unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, in order to reduce the amount of waste;
• Develop campaigns for promoting sustainable fishing methods and techniques through protecting resources and other incentives/compensation;
• Development of an educational platform for changing knowledge between public and private institutions;
• Engage participants to apply RRI principles in daily work and daily life;
• Create new models for evaluating risks and economic issues;
• Involve citizens in the political/technical systems;
• Inform and educate wider society of the impacts, challenges and potential solutions for coastal protection;
• Make scientific information reliable and easily accessible to citizens and stakeholders;
• Assess / quantify the social, economic and environmental risk;
• Create procedures for an open access to data and data exchange, to allow for multiple feedbacks from end-users and policy-makers;
• Use of the outcomes of the national monitoring programme as part of a targeted national awareness raising campaign;
• Disseminate widely local and regional regulations and type approvals since the businesses often have significant knowledge gaps;
• Make restaurants aware restaurants and the public about the potential offered by the blue biotechnologies;
• Develop a clear understanding around Marine Spacial Planning (MSP) and what its implications are for all stakeholders groups including offshore wind;
• Exchange with star chefs on new products from the transformation of marine resources to provide the opportunity to make the audience aware a wider audience;
• Business stakeholders are mostly interested on the policy agendas;
• Open data for all interested stakeholders;
• Organize of a marine biotechnology day at the regional level including different actors to make the general public aware on the marine biotechnology sector and its potential;
• Encourage scientists and NGO's to popularize the different aspects of marine biotechnology through science café, forums, open days etc;
• Develop a new model of governance for marine biotechnology development including the engagement of the society;
• Push for broad vision for industrial harbour development by local governments inviting non-harbour stakeholders to contribute in new ways;
• Contribute with knowledge and conceptual frameworks that support interaction, collaboration and holistic recommendations based on research experience;
• Develop societal awareness about water and advantages of use of renewable energy sources in general and offshore wind farms in particular;
• Carry out studies on potential impact of the investment in offshore wind energy to develop them;
• Educate children to environmental issues as well as renewable energy profits to create a new wiser society.

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Milestone 7

• Restructuring different mechanisms in order to prevent pollution and to apply polluter sanctions, to ensure the transparency of legislative processes;
• It's necessary a good collaboration and interaction between civil society, policy makers, researchers, business sector and citizens, in all the Black Sea coastal countries;
• Develop new collaborations for new means of communication;
• Take into consideration new types of ownership forms in order to kick-start of development;
• Make regulations for developers and investors for securing more liveable areas in harbour transformations.

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Milestone 8

• Improve port reception facilities and services for processing over waste from ships;
• Use funding programs dedicated to citizens, aimed at replacing old goods and polluting with new and environmentally friendly ones;
• Define and update the legislation to prevent climate changes for Black Sea area;
• Involve citizens in public consultations and decision–making processes for local and national/ EU regulations;
• Raise awareness and embed RRI into educational curricula;
• Ethical issues are highly important in maintaining the sustainable operation of the vessels while safeguarding the environment;
• Attract private investments and develop national projects;
• Create of a one-stop shop for the Institute of blue bio-technologies with short and long-term strategies;
• Attract students into engineering courses;
• Create an award for the best blue bio-technologies innovation or product to make maritime biotechnologies a sustainable economic opportunity;
• Build the appropriate infrastructure and technology for the Wave Energy Sector;
• Coordinate and develop industrial, academic and political linkages to boost funding around marine biotechnologies;
• Involve "Ambassadors" or " figures" at regional level (navigators, high level sportsman, known well-respected public figures of all kinds);
• Facilitate fruitful discussions and widely disseminate conclusions to third parties;
• Engage all interested stakeholders in harbour development;
• Implement program of innovative research in relation to the effectiveness of the constructions of towers and generators to ensure sustainable development of renewable energy;
• Establish policies that are favourable for ecological investments in sustainable development;
• Open university faculties, strongly connected with wind farms to help the sustainable development of renewable energy;
• Scale up research and bring responses to sustainable development of offshore wind farms with Science education;
• Educate policy-makers to science to reinforce policies and adopt coherent legislative frameworks of economic competitiveness and sustainability of offshore wind energy.

See also...

Workshop Methodology