Lessons Learned from Cyprus MML workshops

Milestone 2

Raise citizen and business awareness about the environmental protection and sustainability;
Initiate target awareness campaigns towards all stakeholders through a specific media;
Motivate to receive ahead of the workshop and on time the participants' action ideas and to attract participants from all stakeholders’ groups;
Be aware that policy-makers are not easy to engage unless they see a specific benefit that fits their agenda;
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.

Milestone 3

Engage researchers with the industry for the development of appropriate technologies since there is a discrepancy between the academia and the industry needs;
Raise awareness among pupils and students about environmental protection through informational programs as well as promote the specific sector as a means of employability;
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.

Milestone 4

Take measures to develop and further enhance the engagement and cooperation between different stakeholders;
A structured participatory method like SDD helps participants converge their opinions towards a common vision and a common action plan.

Milestone 6

Increase environmental and science education to promote societal understanding and participation;
Create training programs targeting SMEs and investors by focusing on enablers and barriers;
Initiate open access through public offices also to non-governmental stakeholders;
Use citizen observatories through mobile phones to report pollution sites and inappropriate environmental behaviour;
Educate citizens about the value of the sea in their daily lives is necessary to raise ocean awareness and literacy;
Provide Open Access to data for a proactive response to societal challenges;
Develop information exchange systems between government, industry and the universities;
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.

Milestone 8

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;
Push for governance and ethics to be required in business registration requirements for creating awareness on sustainability;
Create platforms where industry and academic leaders can disseminate accurate and influential information which can be accessible by the general public;
To develop a sector, develop a legal framework promoting and regulating its development;
Education is necessary for the marine biotechnology development thus the need for developing university educational programmes on marine biotechnology.

See also...