Developing Education and Employment Partnerships for a Sustainable Blue Growth in the Western Mediterranean Region

DEEP BLUE will promote collaboration between marine and maritime education, research, and training centres to strengthen relevant skills and increase capacity building for blue career development in the Western Mediterranean Region.

Education and training programmes will be created through this project to enable a better knowledge and a common methodological approach in the sectors of the blue economy in the Mediterranean. The Italian, Spanish and Tunisian partners will be in charge of the development of these programmes, which should also strengthen North-South and South-South cooperation between public and private actors in the maritime sector. 

Main training paths:

• an advanced training for local authorities, municipality officers and representatives of the private sector, on Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) to promote further public-private synergies in the marine environment management;
• a training-of-trainers for young professionals in the field of marine sciences and environmental monitoring techniques to manage the environmental impacts on fisheries and aquaculture in order to share and innovate common methodologies;
• a job shadowing programme for young professionals in the marine and maritime field (PhD students, researchers, high qualified professors) for promoting international mobility and talent circulation;
• an advanced training for experts on the effective management for a sustainable development of fisheries resources in order to exchange new, good and best practices;
• a study visit in Italy to the “Trieste System” a hub for science, business and society interactions in a wide geographical area such as North-East of Italy and Central Eastern Europe during the European Science Open Forum (ESOF Trieste 2020) to increase project visibility and create new opportunities for partnerships.

The successful operation of these unique trainings would create further collaborations between research and higher education institutions and private sector of the countries of the Mediterranean Region in view of developing a sustainable Blue Economy and to fulfil the existing education and skills gaps in both shores of the Mediterranean.

Project partners

• Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS), (IT);
• University of Sfax, Department of Life Sciences, (UniSfax), (TN);
• Universidàd Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), (SP);
• Higher Institute of Fishing Technologies and Aquaculture, (TN).