The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth's water. Marine systems are pivotal to interact with this environment. They currently play a key role in the exploitation of marine resources (offshore), conservation of marine environments (environment assessment) and security applications (harbour protection). The European Commission has estimated that the economic impact of the “blue” economy, which considers all activities linked to the sea, is worth more than 400 billions € annually, with more than 150 billions € in activities directly related to marine activities. Additionally, marine systems (considering autonomous vehicles in the underwater, surface or aerial domain, as well as sensor systems) in HEI can significantly contribute to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the 2030 Agenda set by all UN countries. This project brings together eight key HEIs in Europe for a two year cooperation in the field of marine systems with the aim of: - Creating a sustainable, international, and cross-field network in the area, to foster cooperation, exchange of good practice and innovative approaches, providing a platform to discuss key topics in the area, linking them to the UN SDGs; - Creating novel study material in the field of marine systems - Fostering entrepreneurship mindset and creative thinking; - Bridging the gap between academia and industry, making the two worlds working closer - Creating occasions for students to participate in international Intensive Study Programs, with renowned speakers; The activities of the partnership will be organised in the following way: Each transnational project meeting - two each year - will focus on a specific topic relevant to the network, and with particular reference to the UN SDGs: - Employability - a discussion about how the current courses link the students to potential companies and employers will bring concrete recommendation about the active involvement of industries and companies - SDG 8: decent work and economic growth; - Gender Equality - a discussion about current strategy and new options to reduce the gender unbalance, which is still quite high in the robotics field, will bring a concrete action plans and recommendations for future actions - SDG 5: gender equality; - Education, Teaching & Research - teaching courses and approaches across the partners will be presented to identify synergies and best practices; ways to integrate the teaching and the research aspects will be discussed to foster a virtuous system of reciprocal reinforcing - SDG 4: quality education; - Environment and sustainability - a discussion and brainstorming on how to include sustainability aspects in marine systems curricula, and the role that marine systems can play for an environmentally sustainable planet - SDG 14: oceans, SDG 13: climate change; - Entrepreneurship; compare approaches to give the right tools to students and empower them, drafting conclusions about the study course developed and its test trial as ISP - SDG 8: decent work and economic growth. The partnership will develop four intellectual outputs: - An interdisciplinary study course on marine systems - An engaging study course on entrepreneurship - An innovative study course on marine systems for industry - A special issue of a journal publication about education in marine systems, with a particular attention to the results and the topics analysed in the project life. Students will participate in two Intensive Study Program sessions - one per year: - Marine Systems: organised as interdisciplinary summer school, with renowned international teachers, with a student-centric approach which will also allow hand-on experience - Entrepreneurship: organised not only to provide basic information, but also to actively engage the participants The two ISPs will also serve to test the two study courses developed for students and the feedback will be used for the final updates. The main outcomes of the project are: - For the staff point of view, the development of educational practices to improve knowledge and skills, and to foster employability and entrepreneurship, with an inclusive approach, in the field of marine systems; - For the students, the possibility to participate in an international dimension to high-quality study programmes, increasing their chances of employability - For the wider HEI community, the availability of coherent courses in marine systems and entrepreneurship - For the industry, the availability of ad-hoc course thought explicitly for their needs. It is expected that a pilot course will also run in the timeframe of the project, though not explicitly in the framework of this project. As it aims staff from the private sector which are not partner in the project, we do not consider that course as ISP - For all involved people, the possibility to get to know the UN SDGs and be encouraged into sustainable lifestyle, from all varied perspectives
The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth's surface and contain 97 percent of the Earth's water. Marine systems are pivotal in the interaction and stewardship of this environment. They currently play a key role in climate research, conservation of marine environments, exploration and exploitation of marine resources as well as security applications. The European Commission has estimated that the economic impact of the “blue” economy, which considers all activities linked to the sea, is worth more than 400 billions € annually, with more than 150 billions € in activities directly related to marine activities. With this in mind, advancing intelligent marine systems, mobile and stationary through HEI, is a necessity in order to monitor, assess and inform us to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals, put forward in the 2030 UN Agenda. This project brought together eight key HEIs in Europe for a 2.75 year cooperation in the field of marine systems with objective to: - Create a sustainable, international, and cross-field network in the area, to foster cooperation, exchange of good practice and innovative approaches, providing a platform to discuss key topics in the area, linking them to the UN SDGs; - Create novel study material in the field of marine systems - Foster entrepreneurship mindset and creative thinking; - Bridge the communication gap between academia and industry - Create opportunities for students to participate, in person and remotely, in international Intensive Study Programs, with renowned speakers; The activities of the partnership are organised in the following way: Each transnational project meeting focused on a specific topic relevant to the network, and with particular reference to the UN SDGs, due to pandemic conditions meetings starting in 2020 were held virtually : - Employability - a discussion about how the current courses link the students to potential companies and employers will bring concrete recommendation about the active involvement of industries and companies - SDG 8: decent work and economic growth; - Gender Equality - a discussion about current strategy and new options to reduce the gender unbalance, which is still quite high in the robotics field, will bring a concrete action plans and recommendations for future actions - SDG 5: gender equality; - Education, Teaching & Research - teaching courses and approaches across the partners will be presented to identify synergies and best practices; ways to integrate the teaching and the research aspects will be discussed to foster a virtuous system of reciprocal reinforcing - SDG 4: quality education; - Environment and sustainability - a discussion and brainstorming on how to include sustainability aspects in marine systems curricula, and the role that marine systems can play for an environmentally sustainable planet - SDG 14: oceans, SDG 13: climate change; - Entrepreneurship; compare approaches to give the right tools to students and empower them, drafting conclusions about the study course developed and its test trial as ISP - SDG 8: decent work and economic growth. The partnership has worked on five intellectual outputs: - An interdisciplinary study course on marine systems - An engaging study course on entrepreneurship - An innovative study course on marine systems for industry - Several publications from IMPACT partners related to education in marine systems, with a particular attention to the results and the topics analysed in the project life. - a mechanism for accessing remote marine robotics infrastructures for education Students participated in two Intensive Study Program (ISP) session: - Marine Systems: organised as interdisciplinary summer school, with renowned international teachers, with a student-centric approach which will also allow hand-on experience - The second ISP, on Entrepreneurship could not take place in person because of contact and travel restriction during the pandemic, instead it was integrated with online offerings of our partners and collaborators. The main outcomes of the project are: - For the staff point of view, the development of educational practices to improve knowledge and skills, and to foster employability and entrepreneurship, with an inclusive approach, in the field of marine systems; - For the students, the possibility to participate in an international dimension to high-quality study programmes, increasing their chances of employability - For the wider HEI community, the availability of coherent courses in marine systems and entrepreneurship - For the industry, the availability of ad-hoc course tailored explicitly for their needs. It is expected that in the future a pilot course aimed at existing staff in the private sector will be offered based on the structure developed in this project. - Develop and engrain a deeper knowledge and understanding in all project participants of the UN SDGs and encourage the development and implementation of sustainable practises.