Sea for Society / Blue Society

Sea for Society (SFS) is a European Project funded by DG Research & Innovation under the Theme Science in Society. The project engages stakeholders, citizens and youth in an open and participatory dialogue to share knowledge, forge partnerships and empower actors on societal issues related to Ocean. In doing so, the project aims to develop and enrich the concept of "Blue Society", preparing at the same time mechanisms for cooperation.

Public Engagement in Research (PER) as it relates to European maritime policy is at the core of the process. SFS will mobilize marine researchers, Civil Society Organisations - CSO's and individual citizens and youth in a mutual learning, open dialogue to debate key societal questions related with the Ocean, extract cross-cutting issues and propose challenge-driven solutions fostering a sustainable management of marine eco-system services by European citizens.

The project has brought together a multidisciplinary partnership of 20 partners from 10 countries representing marine research institutes, funding agencies, science museums and aquaria, CSO's, higher education institutes and business networks. List of the partners can be found here.

From 2012 to 2015, SFS will shape the new concept of "Blue Society" and improve the governance of research related to the oceans and seas. It's a first step for a cross-sectorial dialogue in Europe on the relation between the Ocean and the citizens daily life activities.

Irish Partners

Marine Institute

Over 150 children from five schools from Dublin, Cork, Galway, and Mayo visited an open day on the Marine Institute's research vessel, the RV Celtic Explorer, as well as Galway Atlantaquaria, as part of the EU FP7 Sea for Society project to raise awareness of our ocean, this week in Galway city (10th June 2015). For more on this story - RV Celtic Explorer hosts National Schools Open Day as part of Sea for Society project and to look at pictures from the day please visit the Marine Institute Facebook page.

As part of the SEA FOR SOCIETY ocean awareness initiative pupils from Glenageary Killiney National School, Dublin visited the Marine Institute's RV Celtic Explorer in Galway. Photo:Andrew Downes:XPOSURE — with @explore.

AquaTT

AquaTT in Ireland has just launched a new booklet. The Irish Sea for Society Compendium features profiles of famous Irish and international sea heroes, great shipwrecks in history, including those that can be found off the Irish coasts, some sea animals which are living in Irish waters, some fun lists (songs, books and movies) related to the sea, a comic, and some colouring sheets. The compendium is accessible and has something for all ages.

Download The Irish Sea for Society Compendium here or If you are interested in hardcopies of The Irish Sea for Society Compendium, please contact Niamh Dornan, email: niamh@aquatt.ie