On Friday, April 7, The European Institute will host a special meeting on “Transatlantic Ocean Research Cooperation.” In the past four years, the EU-U.S.-Canada 'Galway Statement' on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation, which launched the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, has become a landmark in the global research landscape. The increasing alignment in the Atlantic Ocean research agendas of the EU, U.S. and Canada underline the maturity of the cooperation. Currently, there are 318 research teams cooperating on areas such as seabed mapping, aquaculture, ocean observation, ocean literacy, and ocean health and stressors. The cooperation under this alliance could potentially offer a role model for developing effective multilateral approaches to the sustainable exploitation of shared resources.
The co-chairs of the Implementation Committee, John Bell from the European Commission, Craig McLean from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Trevor Swerdfager from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, will discuss how research and innovation can be leveraged to become a model of cooperation across the Atlantic and will highlight the mutual benefits of the cooperation in terms of research results, economies of scale, elimination of duplication and shared understanding of the common resource that the Atlantic Ocean represents.
The discussion will be prefaced with an introduction by the Director for International Research and Innovation Cooperation at the European Commission, Maria Cristina Russo, who will set the scene regarding the openness of the European research program Horizon 2020 to the world, the importance that Europe attaches to transatlantic cooperation and the steps which have been taken to promote it.
Speakers:
Maria Cristina Russo, Director, International Cooperation, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
John Bell, Director, Bioeconomy, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Craig McLean, Acting Chief Scientist & Assistant Administrator for Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Trevor Swerdfager, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Ecosystems, Oceans Science and Oceans Protection Plan, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
The meeting will be held at the Cosmos Club, located at 2121 Massachusetts Avenue, NW from 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. Registration will begin at 8:00 a.m. Please RSVP to events@europeaninstitute.org.