Lessons Learned per Co-Defining an Action Plan

Milestone 1

• Explore the questions that are relevant to the real-life concerns of the group.

Milestone 2

• Improve science literacy and research applicability to increase awareness on the specific issue;
• Consider societal challenges (as defined by the EC) during the participative events, in order for the results to be easily related to them.

Milestone 3

• Ensure a good representation of professionals (industry related to the topic, policy makers, journalists) to have a balanced dialogue;
• Involve the private sector, policymakers, the scientific community and the local and national community for the definition of ideas, needs and solutions;
• Construct a good collaboration among project partners from the beginning of the project to its legacy to ensure a wider take-up of the results by all partners;
• Consider carefully legislation and cultural differences between project participants in the discussion prior to the project proposal to avoid possible understanding of feasability barriers;
• Collaborate with your local partners, which can be great allies;
• Use common words so that non scientists participants can understand and contribute to the discussion without being overwhelmed by scientific language;
• Connect all stakeholders through education and communication;
• Foster collaboration among companies in the marine biotechnologies value chain and social and environmental actors;
• Develop concrete examples that stakeholders can understand and get involved;
• Implement RRI in real situations, with many participants proposing many actions;
• Mobilize stakeholders for active involvement;
• Plan the programme to encourage as much opportunity for interactions between participants;
• All relevant stakeholders need to be involved in the process of developing sustainable tourism ventures within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs);
• Increase awareness in the youngest about the (local) marine issues to create a new generation of people that are aware of the problems and want to engage themselves, to take action also through a political career.

Milestone 4

• Do not interfere too much with the topics participants chose to focus on, it mostly depends on individual needs/experience and knowledge;
• Give participants more time to contribute to the ideas at other tables;
• Try to approach of potential participants and their engagement in convergent discussions with the future topic of the event;
• 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;
• Establish cooperation among diverse stakeholders (researchers, innovative businesses, politicians and citizens) even when it's challenging;
• Mobilise stakeholders early in the process to develop viable and sustainable business models;
• Joined stakeholder involvement produces ideas with integrated and holistic focus based on synergy and collaboration;
• Focus on environmental aspects through a multi-stakeholder approach to ensure stability and availability of resources;
• Stakeholders are concerned that the authorities and the private companies will decide to advance with Deep Sea Mining without proper public consultation and without knowing sufficient about the deep sea;
• The absence of gender equality reveals a critical gap in access to opportunities and resources and decision-making power for women and men;
• The SDD method allows for integrating contributions from individuals with diverse views, backgrounds and perspectives through a process that is structured, inclusive and collaborative;
• Give tight bounds to participants about the shape of the contributions they have to provide, so they will not have other option than provide what is needed;
• Actively introduce Gender Equality into discussions and ideas, as most often is a non considered aspect;
• One day is not enough for SDD.

Milestone 5

• Use the SMART action format to ease the follow up of the workshop;
• Have a discussion phase that is long enough for all participants to be fully aware of all the implications of the proposed ideas without extending the duration of the workshop;
• Implement a coherent national monitoring programme;
• Apply a long-term and crosscutting strategic planning by defining SMART common vision and actions; * Focus not only on high-level ideas, but also on required research and innovation actions needed to execute them;
• Develop a common vision and an action plan with a more narrow focus combining development milestones and follow-up workshops;
• Empower citizens beyond data collection through involvement in decision-making and governance;
• Consider the RRI principles as guidelines to construct the project processes for a sound management of the projects;
• Prepare take home tools and methods that participants can implement in their jobs;
• Provide a quality framework in which all stakeholders can work toward a solution thanks to a good governance;
• Plan what to do with buildings/installations which have been created while building wind farms;
• Develop case studies on how municipalities work with climate change projects and community driven innovation;
• 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;
• Include key local stakeholders in the planning and implementation of local strategies;
• Work together (science, law, economics, policy) to give advice on seabed mining issues;
• Create an organized knowledge synthesis on Deep Sea Mining;
• Develop new capacities for studying and a performing monitoring;
• Increase awareness regarding water quality;
• Conduct studies of renewable energy on the Black Sea coastal area;
• Develop educational programs to prepare specialists in the "renewable energy systems" field;
• Raise public awareness on the real problems;
• Develop and implement awareness and educational campaigns and engage local communities;
• Include marine/environmental education in school curricula;
• Developing a spatial plan specific to zoning of areas of offshore renewables;
• Develop a GIS information database;
• Develop a clear communications strategy;
• Use of research and data sets to ensure that decisions are made to safeguard the interests of all stakeholders;
• Engage the public and involve governing bodies at various levels to generate ideas that are ethical, sustainable, inclusive and of social justice;
• Define SMART common vision and actions towards a specific goal and project;
• Raise awareness through education for developing/supporting new technologies for responsible maritime transport;
• Awareness and education are fundamental in changing mind-sets;
• Allocate a good part of the workshop for creating a clear common action plan;
• Ensure that the process of co-generating an action plan is concluded during the workshop;
• While interpreting the results consider that participants can have different information and data about the topic: the "reality" can be difficult to identify;
• Ask the participants to obtain in advance the necessary authorization from the Institutions they represent, to propose actions during the workshop.

Milestone 6

• Facilitate collaboration between research and industry/market to create a dynamic knowledge-sharing mechanism;
• Convince investors to facilitate the creation of a dynamic knowledge-sharing mechanism;
• 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;
• Take actions in order to update the actual legislation;
• Put in place a policy-oriented, holistic and integrated approach to tackle complex issues;
• Carry out studies on potential impact of the investment in offshore wind energy to develop them;
• Create new models for evaluating risks and economic issue;
• Adapt local policies and strategies in order to be in agreement with research outcomes;
• Plan local actions in agreement with its local circumstances instead of promoting larger-scale policies;
• Support local and international decision-makers in charge of evaluating if, when, how, by who and for what should Deep Sea Mining ever take place;
• Create an open access platform with all Deep Sea Mining data available including biological and geological information;
• Create a common DATABASE – for centralizing all the data and studies regarding biodiversity;
• 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;
• Use of the outcomes of the national monitoring programme as part of a targeted national awareness raising campaign;
• Make urban planning and tourism development collaborative and democratic by involving citizens and business in envisioning urban futures and resolve negative environmental impacts;
• Educate the public at large in their individual role in marine conservation and sustainability (Public Engagement, Science Education);
• Changing customer demand requires attractive and sustainable products that provide unique and customised experiences;
• Action and follow-up the co-defined action plan;
• Each initiative on sustainable tourism products requires the right expertise (knowledge and skills) and institutional participatory processes that will support stakeholders' successful involvement;
• Initiate open access through public offices also to non-governmental stakeholders;
• 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;
• Implement innovative and responsive policies to face climate change effects and assure a balanced competitiveness, growth and sustainability;
• Start measuring and collecting marine scientific data on board different non-scientific vessels;
• Develop information-based decision support tools, with automated intervention systems.

Milestone 7

• Governance should strive for active engagement of the key public and private stakeholder bodies for the development and impact on the societal challenge;
• The ultimate aim should be to develop and implement tools to monitor sustainable development impacts and to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products;
• Organise a European "Grenelle" of bioethics to do an inventory of knowledge, regulations and current projects and processes as well as to define indicators and good practices for the development of marine biotech;
• Take into consideration new types of ownership forms in order to kick-start of development;
• Build a coastal protection system that can harness the wave energy;
• Restructuring different mechanisms in order to prevent pollution and to apply polluter sanctions, to ensure the transparency of legislative processes;
• Create innovative tools to guide the consumers, thus inducing public and private stakeholders (including NGOs) to invest in more sustainable directions;
• Start specific economic changes (investment, taxation) to support the goal of efficient and sustainable activities;
• Enhance control mechanisms of research and innovation outputs, according to ethical rules.

Milestone 8

• Focus on good enforcement of already existing legislation mechanisms rather than reinventing others from scratch and adjust legislation as necessary;
• Ensure that funding will be secured for action plan execution and follow up actions;
• Advocate on the necessity of creating specific funding schemes to support the development of the targeted sector based on RRI principles;
• Create funding mechanisms to promote RRI in research and innovation in the innovative sectors;
• Encourage scientific knowledge and professional growth that have fundamental roles in supporting innovative sectors;
• Promote education, training and more equal incomes for fishermen in the Azores;
• Consider opportunities of synergies between the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the Azores;
• Beware that the high level of qualification needed in aquaculture and the small scale of the region market are two constraints of the synergies between the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the Azores;
• Open university faculties, strongly connected with wind farms to help the sustainable development of renewable energy;
• Establish policies that are favourable for ecological investments in sustainable development;
• Coordinate and develop industrial, academic and political linkages to boost funding around marine biotechnologies;
• Make environmental impact assessment mandatory for Deep Sea Mining within the EU;
• Oblige companies by contract to use 10% of their investment in an investigation in engineering design for mitigation of Deep Sea Mining during all the operation;
• Upgrade the transport infrastructure for renewable energy;
• 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;
• Improve port reception facilities and services for processing over waste from ships;
• Build the appropriate infrastructure and technology for the Wave Energy Sector;
• Enhance coastal and maritime tourism by adapting to demographic changes, while maintaining the original vocation and atmosphere of the coastal cities;
• Educate planners, civil society leaders, business industry to be more collaborative, responsible and exert place-based leadership;
• Raise the attractiveness of science studies by illustrating the application of science in societal issues;
• Protect the deep sea from mining, create laws that impose that deep sea mining is a non-profit activity and concert the deep sea into world heritage site;
• Provide strong incentives to promote the circular economy;
• Disseminate research and innovation outcomes that have societal relevance for ethical acceptability;
• Promote governance arrangements and practices to favour sustainable tourism and seafood consumption;
• Reliable scientific information is not easily accessible for sectorial actors;
• Education is necessary for the marine biotechnology development thus the need for developing university educational programmes on marine biotechnology;
• Invest in communication campaign by professionals, work with marketing societies to translate the scientific results into clear messages that can reach in particular young people;
• Provide free and easier access to the results of the studies;
• Translate in easy-to-understand messages research outputs and results for better dissemination. Consider using science mediators;
• Provide scientific education in all the scholar cycles: it is crucial;
• Put in place an effective communication about green washing, so to improve the critical sense of the public against "fake" green activities;
• Engage government and law makers in order to make sustainable change in ports and ship;
• Consider that National and International organizations must balance economic profit and a competitive market with the goal of preserving the natural environment of our seas;
• Make ports hubs of sustainability;
• Increase the usage of alternative fuels for ships as for instance Liquefide Naturaò Gas;
• Claim for an international coordination to identify the possible impacts of innovations.

See also...

Stakeholder Engagement