MARLISCO

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Project Information

MARLISCO “MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and CO-Responsibility” is an FP7 Science-in-Society project, which aims to provide a series of mechanisms for bringing key stakeholders for marine litter together. The project raises awareness about the consequences of societal behavior in relation to waste production and management on marine socio-ecological systems, promotes co-responsibility, defines a more sustainable collective vision and facilitates grounds for concerted actions.

Project Specification

  • Partners: Provincia di Teramo (coordinator, Italy), Coastal & Marine Union, EUCC (Netherlands), Cefas (UK), Plymouth University (UK), European Plastics Converters (Belgium), MerTerre (France), Regionalni razvojni centre Koper (Slovenia), University College Cork (Ireland), Mare Nostrum (Romania), EUCC – The Coastal Union (Germany), ISOTECH Ltd (Cyprus), UBBSLA (Bulgaria), PlasticsEurope (Belgium), Faculdade de Ciencias e Tecnologia – Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), MIO-ECSDE (Greece), Turkish Marine Research Foundation (Turkey), KIMO Danmark (Denmark), Honkytonk Films (France), MediaTools (France)
  • Duration: 1 June 2012 – 30 May 2015
  • Project Acronym: MARLISCO
  • Project Title: MARine Litter in Europe Seas: Social AwarenesS and CO-ResponsibilityProject Reference: FP7-SiS-2011-1.0-1, Grant agreement no: 289042
  • Funded By: European Commission – 7th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation
  • Total EC Funding: 4.119.357, 94 €

MARLISCO seeks to raise societal awareness of both the problems and the potential solutions relating to a key issue threatening marine habitats worldwide; the accumulation of marine litter. A major objective of the project is to understand and subsequently facilitate societal engagement in order to inspire changes in attitudes and behavior. 15 European countries are involved in the partnership. MARLISCO will develop and evaluate an approach that can be used to address the problems associated with marine litter and which can also be applied more widely to other societal challenges. ISOTECH ltd is a Lead Partner, responsible for the implementation of the project’s activities in Cyprus. The main objective of the MARLISCO project is to increase the awareness of the consequences of societal behaviour in relation to waste production and management on marine socio-ecological systems, to promote co-responsibility among the different actors, to define a more sustainable collective vision, and facilitate grounds for concerted actions through the successful implementation of the MMLAP. The project, in developing its activities until mid 2015, will provide a series of mechanisms to engage and empower key stakeholders and awareness activities which will be tailored appropriately to the targeting sector. This will be achieved by organising activities across 15 European countries, including national debates in 12 of them, involving industry sectors, scientists and the public; a European video contest for school students; educational activities and tools targeting the younger generation; and exhibitions to raise awareness among the wider public. MARLISCO will make use of innovative multimedia approaches to reach the widest possible audience, in the most effective manner. The project will develop and evaluate approaches that can be used to address the problems associated with marine litter and which can also be applied more widely to other societal challenges where there are substantial benefits to be achieved through better integration among researchers, stakeholders and society.

Project Activities

  • Web-database of best practices for the reduction of marine litter. Isotech Ltd was responsible for the collection and evaluation of best practices applied in Europe and abroad in order to minimise marine litter. Over 70 practices have been collected and are displayed on MARLISCO’s web-database. These best practices were evaluated by a panel of experts using the dedicatedly developed methodology DeCyDe-4-MARLISCO to identify those practices that offer the greatest potential for reduction of marine litter. A selection of these best practices was used to develop “The MARLISCO Guide for Reducing Marine Litter: Get Inspired and Become Innovative Through Best Practices“.
  • An interactive and innovative exhibition has been developed and translated to the many languages of the project. The exhibition is being displayed around Europe. View the Gallery to see photographs from the exhibition in Cyprus.
  • MARLISCO organised a European Video Contest for youth in 14 countries, where youth were asked to give their opinions about marine litter, its sources, impacts and solutions in a 2-minute short video. The winning teams from each country won a trip to Bremen to visit the European Maritime Days held in May 2014, where a compilation of the 14 videos was presented and the winners were awarded by Commissioner Damanaki. Click to view the winning video from Cyprus, the compilation video, the award ceremony organised in Cyprus, and photographs from the trip to Bremen.
  • Within the framework of MARLISCO National Awareness Activities are taking place in all involved countries. In Cyprus, these include beach cleanups and educational activities with children on the beach. The latest national awareness activity was organised on the occasion of the International Coastal Cleanup day in Finikoudes Beach in Cyprus. You can view photos here.
  • The Cypriot National Forum on Marine Litter, organised within the framework of MARLISCO, took place on 15 October 2014 and was a great success.
  • MARLISCO will deliver a variety of other activities and projects, including the development of educational material. To find more about these and other project activities visit MARLISCO’s site.