The Horizon2020 project Black Sea CONNECT, coordinated by METU, was awarded the Excellence Award in the “A Competitive, Innovative, and Sustainable Blue Economy for the Black Sea” category at the Black Sea Stakeholder Conference 2024, in addition to the Winner of Winners Award.
The Black Sea Stakeholder Conference, supported by the European Commission, was held this year on September 11-12 in Chișinău, the capital of Moldova, with the theme “Leveraging policy and practice to promote a sustainable blue economy.” Projects that made significant contributions to the maritime success of the Black Sea region were awarded in three categories during the conference, based on the evaluations of the Black Sea Project Awards jury. Projects implemented within the geographical area covered by the Black Sea Common Maritime Agenda were eligible to apply for awards in the categories “Healthy Marine and Coastal Ecosystems,” “A Competitive, Innovative, and Sustainable Blue Economy for the Black Sea,” and “Fostering Investment in the Black Sea Blue Economy.”
The Black Sea CONNECT project, coordinated by Prof. Barış Salihoğlu and Prof. Mustafa Yücel from the Graduate School of Marine Sciences at METU, along with the DOORS project, in which Prof. Bettina Fach Alioğlu and Asst. Prof. Devrim Tezcan from METU are principal investigators, won awards in the “A Competitive, Innovative, and Sustainable Blue Economy for the Black Sea” category. Furthermore, the Black Sea Accelerator (BSA) initiative, jointly supported and led by the DOORS project and the BRIDGE-BS project (another project coordinated by Prof. Salihoğlu and Prof. Yücel), received an award in the “Fostering Investment in the Black Sea Blue Economy” category.
In addition to the awards distributed in three categories, the Black Sea CONNECT project received the “Winner of Winners” award, which was determined by the votes of conference participants during the award ceremony. The Black Sea CONNECT team secured the highest number of votes from the participants with their presentation, thus earning the title of “Winner of Winners.”
About the projects
The Black Sea CONNECT project, the first in its field for the Black Sea region and also METU’s first coordination of a multi-partner Horizon2020 consortium, brought together 14 organizations from nine different countries including our country: Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Germany, and France. The project that started on October 1, 2019, and was completed on June 30, 2023, aimed to coordinate the development of the Black Sea Strategic and Innovation Agenda (Black Sea SRIA) and to support the growth of blue economy in Black Sea. As part of Black Sea CONNECT, various action plans were designed to enhance blue growth and economic prosperity in the Black Sea region by creating a network of funders, developing new transnational joint activities, and facilitating knowledge transfer.
The DOORS project, which began on June 1, 2021, and is expected to be completed by May 31, 2025, aims to implement the SRIA in close collaboration with regional stakeholders and other projects, provide the necessary infrastructure to understand Black Sea ecosystems, develop a framework to support Blue Growth, and generate evidence for shaping policies aligned with the Black Sea SRIA.
The Black Sea Accelerator initiative aims to encourage the development of innovative blue economy projects focused on sustainable growth in the Black Sea region. The initiative seeks to support blue economy innovations through a series of targeted activities, including training sessions, workshops, and expert discussions.
