The European Commission (EC) and the Atlantic Strategy Group have named the European support and co-ordination project for the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AORAC-SA), which includes PLOCAN as a partner, as the winners of the “Atlantic Project Award”.
The “Atlantic Project Award” is granted in recognition of outstanding successes attained by projects in the target geographic zone of the Atlantic Strategy relating to the implementation of the European Union’s Atlantic Action Plan.
A six-person jury, comprised of representatives of the EC and of the Atlantic Strategy Group, academics and representatives of business and the industry granted the International Co-operation Prize to the AORA-CSA programme, based on the strategy, innovation, roll-out, results and pertinence with respect to the fundamental priorities of “blue growth” in the Atlantic Ocean.
This prize rewards the AORA-CSA programme as a story of resounding success in the geographic zone of the Atlantic, highlighting the incorporation and extension of best international practises, while promoting the fundamental priorities of the Atlantic Strategy and the European Union’s Atlantic Action Plan, as reflected in the Galway Declaration, and its potential support for the Blue Economy on a transatlantic scale.
Apart from PLOCAN, the project partners are the Marine Institute of Ireland, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES-CIEM), the World Ocean Council, the Norwegian Marine Research Institute, Ciência Viva (Portuguese National Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture), Rannís (Icelandic Research Centre) and IFREMER (French Research Institute for the Exploration of the Sea). It also included the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, the Canadian Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans, plus JPI Oceans (Joint Programming Initiative for Healthy and Productive Seas) and the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) as third parties.
The objective of the European support and co-ordination project for the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AORA-CSA) is to provide scientific, technological and logistical support for the EC in the development and implementation of transatlantic marine research between the European Union, the United States of America and Canada.
