New Blue Growth Opportunities for Europe
Putting Business at the Heart of the Marine Restoration Agenda
Join the MERCES Business Club today at MERCES@deepseasolutions.co.uk
The ecological restoration of marine environments is providing new opportunities for a wide variety of businesses in Europe, including coastal/ocean engineering, project management, finance, environmental, health, safety, risk assessment, social and law consulting services. A wide variety of skills are required for successful marine restoration.
The project MERCES (Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas) (2016 to 2020) is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 (H2020) programme for scientific research and blue growth. MERCES aims to develop new methods for marine restoration from the shoreline to the deep ocean and apply these at commercial landscape scales.
Projects in H2020 require a strong focus on stimulating partnerships between innovative science, businesses and policy development. MERCES aims to achieve this synergy by forming an interactive ‘Business Club’.
What you will get from the Business Club:
• Preferential access to results from field tests of new methods in marine restoration • A responsive ‘Industry Portal’ for to answer your enquiries on marine restoration • A one-stop service from scientists, lawyers and economists specialising in marine restoration • Opportunities to buy into field projects and influence the direction of research • Introductions to businesses across Europe for complementary skills • Information on new business opportunities in marine restoration crossing borders and business sectors • Newsletters targeted at business needs highlighting commercial case studies and field studies • An interactive webinar series focussing on practical applications of the latest science
The MERCES Business Club
The Marine Ecosystem Restoration in Changing European Seas (MERCES) project brings together the many skills required for successful marine restoration projects including • specialist scientific knowledge on the restoration of coastal and marine, shallow soft and hard bottom habitats, • methods for quantifying the returns from ecosystems services and their socio-economic impacts • cost-benefit analyses for different marine restoration options and measures • targeted legal-policy and governance knowledge to optimize marine restoration approaches in the differing legal regimes in European waters • taking actions to put businesses at the heart of the marine restoration agenda.
The MERCES Business Club aims to develop a new method for stimulating business opportunities and blue growth in European and global markets.
Companies from a wide variety of business sectors will be contacted through key staff nominated by the companies to learn what businesses find useful in furthering their business interests, influencing how the business club develops and interacts with the Business Club members. MERCES sees personal contact as being critical for two-way conversations rather than passive methods of information sharing. In particular, the Business Club seeks to introduce its members to new business opportunities across Europe and across business sectors. Where possible the Business Club will make introductions between its member organizations and the scientific community to address new projects, combining coastal engineers, socio-economists, lawyers, and scientists.
We will organize interactive webinars with direct methods of interacting with speakers in real time from your desk. These will be organized through the Marine Ecosystem Services Partnership (MESP).
We aim to include speakers equally from scientific institutions and industry, highlighting recent results in MERCES and practical case studies from industry.
While direct contact will be maintained with Business Club members through regular, direct e-mail contact with named contact points, contact across the membership will be maintained through web-based resources and industry targeted e-newsletters. The web pages and newsletters will provide the latest news on marine restoration around the world, details of business opportunities and a method for companies to showcase their active projects in marine restoration, highlighting the problems faced and their solutions.
The content of the web pages and newsletters will be determined by the Business Club members through a special portal for enquiries and advice from business into the MERCES project. MERCES aims to make a sea change in how industries, academia and policy makers in Europe work together.
Co-Leaders of MERCES Business Club are Dr. David Billett, Director, Deep Seas Environmental Solutions Ltd, UK. www.deepseasolutions.co.uk and Dr. Eva Ramirez, Research Centre for Coast and Ocean, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Oslo, Norway http://www.niva.no
