Following the BlueMed “One Mediterranean” conference in February 2021, and the closure of the BlueMed Coordination and Support Action in March 2021, we entered a phase of consolidation and circulation of the results achieved up to now. Ongoing activities focus especially on addressing the marine litter challenge through the BlueMed Pilot for a Healthy, Plastic-free, Mediterranean Sea, engaging and empowering young people, and further promoting the development of BlueMed’s vision and results in other inititiaves.

Many events and initiatives have been in place to face the challenge of plastic litter, waste management in ports and harbours, as well as plastic production and transformation. The events were attended by key experts and high-profile authorities at the national and international levels (including, the European Commission DG R&I) and where occasions for dialogue, exchange of good practices and strong networking. The community of young BlueMed supporters is growing, with the continuation of the activities of the BlueMed Ambassadors and with the BlueMed Hackathon on marine litter, initiatives which highlight the potential to build the next generation of responsible scientists, citizens, and decision-makers and our shared responsibility to teach them how to embed ethical principles in research-based marine governance.

UNIMED committment to a more sustainable, shared and knowledge-based management of the Mediterranean continues. Shall you want to contribute to our mission, you can join by:

• Supporting the EC Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”
• Knowing more about what is happening in the Mediterranean countries
• Learning with the short course on Science-Policy-Society interactions in ecosystem-based marine resources management and planning, on ecosystem-based management marine spatial planning training, and
• Consulting the many resources available for regional cooperation
• Participating with innovative and game-changing ideas in the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022: Open calls in ocean sustainability and blue economy
• Joining the UNIMED SubNetwork on BlueMed!