Abstract
Restoring and maintaining the resilience of the Black Sea ecosystem, while enabling a sustainable exploitation of its natural resources is vital. A better coordination and alignment of research and innovation efforts alongside developing improved knowledge base and joint infrastructures could substantially support this timely challenge. Towards this end the Burgas Vision Paper was produced, by an initiative supported by EC, as the key framework document for a shared vision for a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable and better-valued Black Sea by 2030. It addresses the four key pillars on which a new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and its Implementation Plan can be built on:
(1) Addressing fundamental Black Sea research challenges,
(2) Developing products, solutions and clusters underpinning Black Sea Blue Growth,
(3) Building of critical support systems and innovative Infrastructures,
(4) Education and capacity building. Building on this recently emerging policy framework, the core contribution of the Black Sea CONNECT CSA will be to scientifically, technically and logistically support the Black Sea Blue Growth Initiative towards the implementation of the Burgas Vision paper, with a view on boosting the blue economy in the region.
The overall objective is to coordinate the development of the SRIA and its implementation plan both at national and regional level. The SRIA and its implementation plan will guide stakeholders from academia, funding agencies, industry, policy and society to address together the fundamental Black Sea challenges, to promote blue growth and economic prosperity of the Black Sea region, to build critical support systems and innovative research infrastructure and to improve education and capacity building. The project will support the design of synergistic activities such as developing an operational network of funders, new transnational joint activities and achieving the knowledge transfer.
Participants
1. Middle East Technical University TR
2. Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation TR
3. Institutul National de Cercetare - Dezvoltare pentru Geologie si Geoecologie Marina- GEOECOMAR RO
4. Institutul National de Cercetare - Dezvoltare Marina Grigore Antipa RO
5. Institue of Oceanology - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences BG
6. Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu TR
7. Institut Francais de Recherche pour l`Exploitation de la Mer FR
8. Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht Zentrum fur Material- Und Kustenforschung GMBH DE
9. Ukrainian Scientific Centre of Ecology of the Sea UA
10. Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, North-West Institute of Management RU
11. P.P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences RU
12. Universitatea de Stat din Tiraspol MD
13. Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University GE
14. Secretariatul National Roman al Retelei Universitatilor de la Marea Neagra RO
Black Sea Universities Network Executive Board Meeting, October 24th and 26th, 2018- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Jeffrey Sachs- Keynote speech at the ICSDG 2019, Bucharest
Keynote speech
International Conference on: „Inter University Cooperation for Open Science", May 28th - 29th, 2019- Bucharest
Concept
Minutes
Media
International Conference on: "Safety and Risk Governance of Manufactured Nanomaterials in South-East Europe and Black Sea Region", 27th and 28th June, 2019- Constanta, Romania
Concept
International Workshop on: "Current Status and Perspectives in the Field of Policies Addressing Social Cohesion in the Black Sea Region", February 20th, 2019-Bucharest
Concept
Speech Eden Mamut
Student essay competition- "Views and Perspectives for the Future in the Black Sea Region" 2018
PABSEC BSUN Essay Competition Concept
The Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea is set as a follow-up to the commitment of the 2018 Burgas Ministerial Declaration “Towards a Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea”. The agenda focuses on activities related to “blue economy”, targeting a sustainable economic development of the region.
The participating countries will pursue three goals:
- Healthy marine and coastal ecosystems
- A competitive, innovative and sustainable blue economy for the Black Sea
- Fostering Investment in the Black Sea blue economy
The collaboration with the Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN) is encouraged in the vision of promoting blue skills and blue careers as an engine for innovation and competitiveness, as part of the second goal.
The Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) will guide stakeholders from academia, funding agencies, industry, policy and society to address together the fundamental Black Sea challenges, to promote blue growth and economic prosperity of the Black Sea region, to build critical support systems and innovative research infrastructure and to improve education and capacity building. The Initiative has identified four main pillars on which a new set of research and innovation actions can be developed:
- Addressing fundamental Black Sea research challenges – Black Sea Knowledge Bridge
- Developing products, solutions and clusters underpinning Black Sea Blue Growth – Black Sea Blue Economy
- Building of critical support systems and innovative Infrastructures – Key Joint Infrastructure and Policy Enablers
- Education and capacity building – Empowered Citizens and Enhanced Blue Workforce.
The BSUN is among the main actors mentioned in the Black Sea SRIA, with the role of developing innovative multi-disciplinary research, building on existing initiatives, including data sharing mechanisms that will generate the knowledge needed to increase ecosystems resilience, as part of the Pillar 1.
The Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea:
https://ec.europa.eu/maritimeaffairs/press/black-sea-ministers-endorse-common-maritime-agenda_en>
Black Sea Research and Innovation Agenda:
http://www.sust-black.ro/Black%20Sea%20Strategic%20Research%20and%20Innovation%20Agenda.pdf
"Black Sea Space Poetry", August 29th - September 11th, 2011- Constanta, Romania
Invitation
Schedule
A hackathon is a design sprint-like event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and others, often including domain experts, collaborate intensively on software projects. The goal of a hackathon is to create usable software or hardware with the goal of creating a functioning product by the end of the event. Hackathons tend to have a specific focus, which can include the programming language used, the operating system, an application, an API, or the subject and the demographic group of the programmers. In other cases, there is no restriction on the type of software being created.
The word "hackathon" is a portmanteau of the words "hack" and "marathon", where "hack" is used in the sense of exploratory programming, not its alternate meaning as a reference to computer security. Hackathons typically start with one or more presentations about the event, as well as about the specific subject, if any. Then participants suggest ideas and form teams, based on individual interests and skills. Then the main work of the hackathon begins, which can last anywhere from several hours to several days. For hackathons that last 24 hours or longer, especially competitive ones, eating is often informal, with participants often subsisting on food like pizza and energy drinks. Sometimes sleeping is informal as well, with participants sleeping on-site with sleeping bags.
At the end of hackathons, there is usually a series of demonstrations in which each group presents their results. To capture the great ideas and work-in-progress often people post a video of the demonstrations, blog about results with screenshots and details, share links and progress on social media, suggest a place for open source code and generally make it possible for people to share, learn from and possibly build from the ideas generated and initial work completed. There is sometimes a contest element as well, in which a panel of judges select the winning teams, and prizes are given. At many hackathons, the judges are made up of organisers and sponsors.
At present, 110 universities are members in the Black Sea Universities Network from 12 Countries associated to the BSEC Organization. The network is running many activities on a bottom-up approach for involving the professors and students in cooperative activities. Some examples of such activities are as following:
• Development of live internet-based collaborative courses. It has started with a group of universities from Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine, where the courses of selected professors are delivered live on internet and allow the following and interactions with other professors and students.
• Initiation of joint research platforms. The process started few years ago with the requests coming from the area of IT. It has been signed an agreement with a large international corporation (PTC) for accessing advanced IT infrastructure on Internet of Things and to develop a comprehensive program in the field of supercomputing and cloud computing.
• Joint debates involving students and professors. Although the concept of University is a very dynamic one and is following the most important trends in the society, the fundamental role of the University is the one of facilitating the expression of free thinking, of exchange of ideas and to open debates. There were tested and launched several models of platforms for debates within the BSUN. At present, the Network is putting an emphasis on the use of the new communication tools and social networks.
