Workshop to explore potential for South Africa- European Union marine research partnerships
Strengthening Technology, Research and Innovation Cooperation between Europe and South Africa
Representatives of BYEFOULING consortium participated in the Workshop held in Athens on 1-2 April 2014; attended: Costas Charitidis, Ioannis Kartsonakis and Amalia Skarmoutsou.
During the workshop the delegates had the opportunity to present BYEFOULING's main goals and targets. They discussed about the fouling problem that marine infrastructures face and the possible activities and ways to face fouling with some researchers. However, most of the participants were experts and interested in other fields of marine research.
The main points that were discussed during the workshop are listed below: 1. The interests and research areas of each participant: marine, environment, biotechnology, aquaculture and energy, mathematical modeling (carbon cycle, CO2 level and oil spills expansion). 2. Blue Growth (BG) calls: there was an extensive discussion on the BG calls, the main areas that BG focuses and the potential collaborations between EU countries and South Africa. 3. South Africa actions: the participants informed about their actions, needs, existing collaborations with EU countries (France, Norway), the policy platform that they focus because of the geographical advantage of S. Africa and the pollution and weather stations they have established. 4. ESASTAP role: organization that focuses on the connection and collaboration of EU countries and S. Africa. They informed about the project "Twinning of research and technologies organizations", which aims in partially funding the bilateral exchange of researchers from EU countries and S. Africa.