Aims and objectives

To build and strengthen the cooperation with partners from candidate and NIS countries, enabling the Community to achieve its RTD strategic objectives.
To contribute actively to the preparation of future activities by producing the basis (Science Plan) necessary for prospective research in the work programme.

To distil the collected scientific knowledge regarding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as a system of interconnected basins. Special emphasis will be given to the recorded response of the ecosystem on natural variability and anthropogenic forcing, in order to provide a basis for future assessment of the impact of predicted Global Change-related stresses on the local ecosystems and economies.
To identify policies and intervention tools on the coastal and marine environment in the Mediterranean and Black Sea system. Identification of the various diverging policies and policy tools, their effectiveness and consequences on the ecosystem and on the economies, is of prime importance in this task.
To identify potential hazards and threats to the environmental state and stability of the Mediterranean and Black Sea system, focusing on the stresses directly related to Global Change and anthropogenic pressures.
To reinforce RTD capacity by identifying the needs of an environmental and resource monitoring network, necessary for an adequate knowledge of the state and functions of the system.
To examine the available observation networks developed within the framework of projects of a different scope (i.e., operational oceanography) and examine ways that they could become beneficial for the monitoring of global change.