Lessons Learned from Cyprus MML workshops

• Initiate open access through public offices also to non-governmental stakeholders;
• Push for governance and ethics to be required in business registration requirements for creating awareness on sustainability;
• Use citizen observatories through mobile phones to report pollution sites and inappropriate environmental behaviour;
• Raise citizen and business awareness about the environmental protection and sustainability;
• Educate citizens about the value of the sea in their daily lives is necessary to raise ocean awareness and literacy;
• Initiate target awareness campaigns towards all stakeholders through a specific media campaigns;
• A structured participatory method like SDD helps participants converge their opinions towards a common vision and a common action plan;
• Advocate on the necessity of creating specific funding schemes to support the development of the targeted sector based on RRI principles;
• Provide Open Access to data for a proactive response to societal challenges;
• Develop information exchange systems between government, industry and the universities;
• Increase environmental and science education to promote societal understanding and participation;
• Take measures to develop and further enhance the engagement and cooperation between different stakeholders;
• Create platforms where industry and academic leaders can disseminate accurate and influential information which can be accessible by the general public;
• Engage researchers with the industry for the development of appropriate technologies since there is a discrepancy between the academia and the industry needs;
• Motivate to receive ahead of the workshop and on time the participants' action ideas and to attract participants from all stakeholders’ groups;
• To develop a sector, develop a legal framework to promote and regulate the development of the specific sector;
• Be aware that policy-makers are not easy to attract to a workshop unless they know the organiser personally;
• Create funding mechanisms to promote RRI in research and innovation in the specific sector;
• Education is necessary for the marine biotechnology development thus the need for developing university educational programmes on marine biotechnology;
• Raise awareness among pupils and students about environmental protection through informational programs as well as promote the specific sector as a means of employability;
• Push for cooperation among academic institutions and the industry as it is crucial;
• The greater majority of actions relate to more than one RRI dimension; this shows that actions are multidisciplinary and involve multiple stakeholders;
• Create training programs targeting SMEs and investors by focusing on enablers and barriers;
• Start planning at least 4 months in advance the organisation of a workshop as it is very time consuming task;
• Carefully consider the workshop's duration as many participants think that a one day-long workshop is too long;
• Learn about participatory methods and how to use them;
• Help the participants with examples to understand how to embed RRI principles when discussing a sector and societal challenges.

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