The Atlantic – Our Shared Resource: Making the Vision Reality

The implementation activities of the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Research Cooperation, signed in May 2013 by the EU, Canada and the United States of America, and launching an Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, are moving to a new exciting stage.

This event will be the launch pad for all the 'Galway Statement follow-up projects' funded with the first Horizon 2020 Blue Growth calls - the main financial instrument on the EU side to make the Galway Statement commitments reality.

The Galway Statement contributes to the implementation of the EU's Atlantic Strategy and its related Atlantic Action Plan, which considers responses to the challenges of delivering growth, reducing the carbon footprint, using the sea's natural resources sustainably, responding effectively to threats and emergencies and implementing an "ecosystem" management approach in Atlantic waters. With a view to translating commitments into investments, the European Commission has earmarked approximately EUR 56 million towards implementation of the Galway Statement through Horizon 2020, the EU Research and Innovation Programme for the period 2014-2020.

The conference will bring together its main actors and set the ground for the next steps in a coordinated approach. It will also be the occasion to bring together all the project coordinators and partners, both from EU Member States, from the US and Canada, but also from Brazil and South Africa, which will contribute to extend this cooperation towards the Southern Atlantic. Ongoing projects from EU Member States but also from international Atlantic coastal countries contributing to the implementation of the Galway Statement commitments will also be invited. This will allow for cross-fertilisation between the different consortia, and pave the way for enlarging the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance community.

This conference is organised jointly by the European Commission, the Directorate-General Research and Innovation in close cooperation with the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the US and Canadian Co-chairs of the Marine Working Groups. The event is also co-organised by BILAT USA 2.0 project, which strongly supports this transatlantic initiative. 

The event is free of charge. Participation is limited to a certain number of places. 

The draft agenda of the event is available on this page for download.

To register please visit: https://scic.ec.europa.eu/fmi/ezreg/GALWAY2015/start