in Brief December 2013 - Bonus EEIG · in Brief December 2013 In many ways this autumn has been for BONUS a turning point: we have looked back on the now closed BONUS+ phase, decided

in Brief

Dec

emb

er 2

013

In many ways this autumn has been for BONUS a turning point: we have looked back on the now closed BONUS+ phase, decided and negotiated a set of new projects as well as moved forward to consider the BONUS future beyond 2017.

The two years since the end of the 16 BONUS+ projects have been a period of intensive summarising and

publishing of the scientific work done. In order to get an overview on how well the BONUS+ call re-sponded to its objective to fund research projects that focus ”on supporting an ecosystem-based approach to management of human activities” BONUS asked the project coordinators to write summary articles of the projects’ outcomes. It was a delight to ob-serve that all projects had so well

and directly addressed the ob-jective. An impressive amount of new knowledge that supports implementation and development of the HELCOM Baltic Sea Ac-tion Plan in particular, and other environmental governance and decision making processes in the Baltic Sea context, had been pro-duced.

Among the topics addressed are e.g. scenarios on how effective the Baltic Sea Action Plan will be within the changing climate, what is the impact of the nutri-ent abatement measures in catch-ment, how well the multinational and multilevel governance works, as well as how should maritime activities be located in order to reduce environmental risks. Within the BONUS+ projects, altogether 60 PhD theses were defended - as important as pro-duction of new knowledge is the upbringing of a new generation of Baltic Sea scientists who under-stand from the very beginning of

their career, that science has to benefit the society. The

articles and a ‘summary

of summaries’ will be published as AMBIO special issue in the be-ginning of next year.

Selection of projects of the BONUS call 2012: Viable ecosys-tem and Innovation parts were made already last summer. The amount of funding, total of ca. EUR 33 million, comes from al-together 18 national funding institutions in nine countries surrounding the Baltic Sea and from the European Union. It has been an administrative challenge to put all the needed financial and contractual arrangements in place so that the projects could start in the beginning of 2014. As regards the ‘Viable ecosystem’ the negotiation and decision process has been finalised, and thus the seven champions of an extreme-ly competitive selection process can now be announced (see pages 5-9), grant agreements signed and the projects started. BONUS an-nounced the projects in the high-est possible European forum, during the event organised in the European Parliament, Brussels, on 26 November 2013 to celebrate

the first year of implementation of BONUS (see next page). The pro-cess concerning the other part of the call, Innovation, is still con-tinuing, and the outcome will be announced in early 2014.

For BONUS, the thematic content of the programme is not written in stone. The first stra-tegic research agenda was de-veloped in 2006, then mainly focusing on the marine environ-ment. In 2011, the second re-search agenda included not only the marine environment but also the catchment and innovation. This autumn, the agenda has been updated again to ensure it re-sponds better to the rapidly devel-oping policy landscape.

BONUS is currently consider-ing its future after the end of the current stage in 2017, then possi-bly within Horizon 2020. At the EU level, the target included in Horizon 2020 is to foster smooth progress from basic scientific findings to innovative market-able products, which in the ma-rine/maritime context has been formulated as the target of ‘blue growth’. It is obvious that in the future BONUS, when its next strategic research and innova-tion agenda is drafted, sustain-able development, including blue growth, will be in focus.

Contents

Kaisa Kononen participated in a panel discussion “How jobs and ecology go together” at the Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region on 11 November 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania

Looking back, moving forward

1

Celebrating the first year of implementation of BONUS in the European Parliament in Brussels

2

Guest column: Member of the European Parliament Ms. Satu Hassi

3

BONUS strategic research agenda updated

4

BONUS call 2012: Viable ecosystem projects announced

5

BAMBI - Baltic Sea marine biodiversity

5

BIO-C3 - Biodiversity changes

6

BLUEPRINT - Biological lenses using gene prints

6

CHANGE - Changing antifouling practices for leisure boats in the Baltic Sea

7

COCOA - Nutrient cocktails in coastal zones

8

INSPIRE - Ecosystem models for sustainable utilisation of fish resources

8

SOILS2SEA - Reducing nutrient loadings from agricultural soils

9

Baltic Sea Science Congress 2013 and public engagement

10

News room 11BONUS Steering Committee Chair, Dr. Eugenijus Butkus

12

BONUS members 12

Looking back and moving forward by Kaisa Kononen, Executive Director, BONUS

Pekk

a T

uu

ri

32 BONUS iN Brief DecemBer 2013 || BONUS iN Brief DecemBer 2013

Hakaniemenranta 600530 Helsinki, FinlandTel. +358 40 040 4011Fax +358 9 4780 0044

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.bonusportal.org/inbrief

Editor-in-Chief: maija SirolaEditor: Tiina TembeEditorial board: Andris Andrusaitis, Kaisa Kononen, meelis Sirendi, minna Ulvila

Layout: Oy Graaf Ab

Printing: Uusimaa, Porvoo 2013

BONUS is a joint research and de-velopment programme producing knowledge to support development and implementation of regulations, policies and management practices specifically tailored for the Baltic Sea region. It issues calls for compet-itive proposals and funds projects of high excellence and relevance based on its strategic research agenda.

BONUS is supported by the national research funding institutions in the eight EU member states around the Baltic Sea and the EU Research Framework Programme. Russia par-ticipates in BONUS through bilateral agreements.

BONUS in Brief is published by the BONUS Secretariat to keep the

BONUS community, including part-ners and supporters, informed about current views and news about BONUS activities and accomplishments.

BONUS EEIG is the legal management organisation of BONUS.

© 2013 BONUS Baltic Organisations’ Network for Funding Science EEIG

On the map the Baltic Sea looks blue and nice. The map does not tell that its

average depth is less than 60 me-ters, and that it takes around 30 years for the water to be changed. Both facts make the sea extremely vulnerable.

It is also not visible on the sur-face that there is a big dead zone in the bottom of the Baltic Sea, caused by lack of oxygen, a result of eutrophication. From a report by EEA, European Environment Agency, I learned that this is the biggest dead zone in the sea bot-toms in the world.

For us living on - or close to - the Baltic Sea, it is well known that our sea is sick. In summer-time it is made visible by the blooming of toxic blue-green algae.

For many, another shock, when discussing the ecological situation of the Baltic Sea, is the fact that the biggest environmen-tal problem is eutrophication. This means us, our agriculture, our food production, our sewage.

When 10 new member coun-tries joined EU in 2004, the Bal-tic Sea became almost an internal lake of the EU. After this it has

been crystal clear that EU deci-sions are the key for improving the ecological state of the sea. But everybody has not yet realised this.

Among all economic sectors agriculture is by far the biggest source of eutrophication of the sea, because of the nutrients, ni-trogen and phosphorus leaking from the farming fields. This is the case especially after the recent improvements in the waste water treatment of the city of St. Peters-burg, which used to be the biggest point load source.

The EU has recently finalised the reform of our common agri-cultural policy, CAP. Before and after the Commission proposal was published, the reform was named "greening" of CAP. Un-fortunately this became a missed opportunity from the point of view of reducing the flow of nu-trients to the Baltic Sea from our agriculture. The fact that the EU Water Framework Directive was dropped from the general re-quirements of agricultural subsi-dies is especially disappointing.

Maybe one reason for the fact that there was not enough politi-cal will to really ‘green’ the CAP,

to reduce wasting of valuable re-sources, nitrogen and phospho-rus, was that too many people misunderstood what should be done. Too many people believed reducing the flow of nutrients to the waterways means banning or limiting agriculture.

Of course we cannot ban agri-culture in the catchment area of the Baltic Sea. Instead we must develop a smarter, more modern, and more resource efficient way of producing food. And probably we need to be smarter on what is grown where.

From scientists I have learned that there are differences on how much nutrients leak to the water-ways depending on what is culti-vated, on what kind of soil, with what kind of method. This is one of the issues where we need more research - and also more effective ways to inform the farmers and the authorities of the results in order to spread best practices.

Another and linked field of re-search is how we can reduce the flow of nutrients from the numer-ous small rivers to the Baltic Sea. I believe research can help us also with this.

Two years ago one Finnish

scientist, Seppo Knuuttila, be-came almost a national hero in Finland. He found out that there is a huge flow of phosphorus to the Baltic Sea from a waste moun-tain of the Fosforit fertilizer plant in Kingisepp, Russia. When de-tected, the phosphorus leak was actually quickly fixed, and with a low cost. This year a leak of simi-lar kind was detected near Gda-nsk in Poland.

Similar stories that make big headlines in the press come rather rarely out from research.

But without research there is no progress in cleaning up our sea. A fairly new topic both in political decision making and re-search is what the plastic waste is doing to our seas, and what can be done to improve the situation.

The EU Commission has re-cently published a proposal to en-courage EU member countries to reduce the use of plastic bags, es-pecially thin bags, with thickness under 0,05 mm. From the mate-rial of the Commission I learned that 94 % of the seabirds of the North Sea have plastic in their digestion channel. Probably the situation is rather similar in the Baltic Sea.

The plastic waste will sooner or later degrade to smaller pieces, micro waste, which is a problem for many reasons. One of them is the fact that plastic attracts or-ganic pollutants; the concentra-tion of these harmful substances on the surface of plastic pieces in the sea can be up to million times bigger than in the seawater itself. Recently I also learned that there are not yet standards on how to measure micro waste. The sci-entists are still developing the equipment and the methods for measuring it.

On reducing eutrophication a lot has already been done. Most cities and factories in the catch-ment area of the Baltic Sea have dramatically improved their waste water treatment. In some areas the improvements are al-ready visible, like in the Eastern end of the Gulf of Finland. But a lot remains to be done to trans-form our agriculture smarter from the point of view of protect-ing our lakes, rivers and seas. It seems that when old problems are solved, new problems emerge, as e.g. the plastic waste.

The need for research will never end.

No recovery of the Baltic Sea without EU actionIn the european Parliament – and in other eU institutions as well, I guess – most people seem to think that in northern europe everything is fine: northern eU member countries are wealthy, people are law abiding, societies well organised, nature is clean and environmental policy is fine. Against this image it comes as a surprise and a shock to many that the Baltic sea is one of the most polluted sea areas in the world.

In this column we publish invited opinion articles by experts of their fields, featuring particular perspectives on a freely chosen topic relevant to the BONUS community and the knowledge-based governance of the regional seas.

BonUs guest column

the high profile event held in the european Parliament on 26 november 2013 celebrated the first year of implementation phase of BonUs and announced the first projects to receive funding within the domain of the BonUs call 2012.

In his welcome address, the Lithuanian Minister of Educa-tion and Science, Mr. Dainius Pavalkis on behalf of the cur-

rent Presidency of the Europe-an Council, highlighted BONUS to be, at the time of pressure on public investments, a good ex-ample of successful international research coordination and coop-eration that does not limit itself just to marine and maritime is-sues but also covers agriculture and other human induced issues relevant to the fragile Baltic Sea.

Also marking the celebration of the BONUS programme, Di-rector Kurt Vandenberghe from the European Commission’s DG Research & Innovation, Direc-tor José Palma Andrés from DG Regional Policy, Director Carla Montesi from DG Maritime Af-fairs and Fisheries and Director Marianne Wenning from DG Environment reflected the value added from different EU level perspectives on the knowledge-based governance of the Baltic and other regional seas.

The topics addressed includ-ed, among others, the value of integrated ecosystem-based ap-proach in research and innova-tion programme, the importance of macro-regional cooperation, the key role that blue growth can and should play and how the stra-tegic research agenda and the BONUS research projects built

on this foundation can contribute substantially to environmental actions required in the efforts to protect the Baltic Sea.

“The action of BONUS is quite unique: it is creating an ecosys-tem among all Baltic Sea states, including Russia, and their re-searchers, innovators and busi-nesses in order to have an integrated ecosystems-based ap-proach to tackling significant challenges such as the Baltic Sea’s eutrophication. BONUS is cut-ting across scientific disciplines, economic sectors, policy agendas and national borders to keep the Baltic Sea alive," said Kurt Van-denberghe, Director of the En-vironment Directorate in DG Research & Innovation at the Eu-ropean Commission.

“BONUS has come a long way from its first science plan focusing on the sea only, and is now con-sidering the Baltic Sea, its coasts and catchment as a continuum. We are proud to have announced today in this highly prestigious company the seven champions of the Viable ecosystem call after an extremely competitive selection process. All seven projects repre-sent multidisciplinary and ho-listic research approach and aim at producing the best knowledge base for the decision makers”, said Mr. Eugenijus Butkus, Chair of the BONUS Steering Commit-tee. “We certainly look forward

Celebrating the first year of implementation of BONUS in the European Parliament in Brussels

Ms. satu Hassi, Member of the european Parliament, Group of the Greens/european Free Alliance and the convening co-host of the BONuS event in the european Parliament, shares her views about the role of research and the value of political will in the protection action of the vulnerable Baltic Sea.

From l. to r. Eugenijus Butkus, Marita Ulvskog, Tunne Kelam, Kaisa Kononen

From l. to r. José Palma Andrés, Carla Montesi, Minister Dainius Pavalkis, Kurt Vandenberghe, Marianne Wenning

BON

uS

BON

uS

to seeing the benefits from these projects towards the Baltic Sea region and its sustainable devel-opment as well as the wider Euro-pean community and protection of the European seas.”

The event was moderated by the Members of the European Parliament Tunne Kelam from

the Group of the European Peo-ple's Party and the chair of the parliamentary Baltic-Europe in-tergroup and Marita Ulvskog from the Group of the Progres-sive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The Office of MEP Satu Hassi from the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance

supported greatly the develop-ment of the event.

MS

See pages 5–9 for the BONUS call 2012: Viable ecosystem projects that were announced during the event.

iSTO

ck


BONUS call 2012:

Viable ecosystem projects announcedseven consortia selected from the BonUs call 2012: Viable ecosystem will start implementing their projects from January 2014 onwards.

by Meelis Sirendi, Programme Officer, BONUS

The competition for funding was extremely tough – only seven proposals out of 87

were selected to receive funding of approximately EUR 4 million each. Only the outstanding pro-ject concepts and plans succeed-ed. The outcome emphasises also that the results of these chosen

projects will truly benefit the Baltic Sea region.

The projects are coordinat-ed by Danish (COCOA, BLUE-PRINT, Soils2Sea), Swedish (BAMBI, CHANGE), Esto-nian (INSPIRE) and German (BIO-C3) institutions. In the next pages the coordinators are

introducing the projects that they will be steering during the four years long implementation phase (2014-2017).

There are in total 67 partici-pating organisations in the pro-jects representing all BONUS states as well as two partners from Russia and one from the

Netherlands. More than third of the partners (23) are from Swe-den; German as well as Swedish researchers are participating in all projects.

Ten research themes from the BONUS strategic research agenda 2011-2017 were includ-ed in the BONUS call 2012: Vi-able ecosystem. Main objective of the call was to attain the nec-essary scientific knowledge on achieving and maintaining the good environmental status of the Baltic Sea, support relevant policies and decision making. When compared to the previous BONUS call, the BONUS+, the difference this time is that the entire catchment-coast-sea con-tinuum is considered in the stra-tegic objectives.

No separate ranking list for each theme or objective was used but instead the proposals were decided according to one

ranking list based on scientif-ic excellence only. Yet the out-come was satisfying – six themes opened for this call were ad-dressed as key themes among the selected seven projects. This shows that in many fields there is top level research in the region. The other four themes were cov-ered as supplementary themes and these can be considered for re-opening in the coming calls.

Finally, from the experience of this call, a good advice to the applicants of the coming calls is that one good formula for being successful in the BONUS calls is to concentrate on the outcomes of the proposal and demonstrate clearly that these are well in line with the outcomes defined in the BONUS strategic research agen-da.

Addressing the potential of adaptation to climate change

by Kerstin Johannesson, Coordinator of BAMBI

In the face of the rapid, ongo-ing environmental changes of the Baltic Sea, the survival of

marine species is challenged. The potential for a species to adapt to a changing environment is given by its plasticity, demogra-phy and genetic diversity. Recent research shows that many of the Baltic Sea species are genetical-ly isolated and have reduced ge-netic diversity, and hence have a lower adaptive potential than, for example, Atlantic populations. In light of this and the expected rapid change of the Baltic Sea en-vironment, it will be critical - as soon as possible – to manage also today’s common Baltic Sea spe-cies in an optimal way to mitigate losses of biodiversity. However, current governance structures and policies do not invoke spe-cies’ evolutionary potentials (=ge-netic variation), and there are large gaps in the scientific knowl-edge that is needed to underpin new strategies.

Climate change will have un-precedented consequences for the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Already today, there is a measurable de-crease in salinity and an increase in temperature, with further and more dramatic changes predicted. One approach to evaluate effects of climate change on organisms has been to use “climate envelope models”. However, such mod-els do not take into account the

potential of evolutionary change of a species. Neither do these models take into account popu-lation demography, connectiv-ity and species interactions, and thus may seriously misjudge the potential of species to resist rapid climate change.

It is quite obvious that envi-ronmental changes impose novel types of selection pressure on in-dividuals and species, and if there is genetic variation for traits af-fecting fitness, selection will re-sult in evolutionary changes and species may become better adapt-ed to the new environment. It is now clear that evolutionary changes may act rapidly in a time scale relevant to climate chang-es. But how often will adaptation happen? And how do we conserve potentials of adaptation?

The overall objectives of the project BAMBI are to answer ur-gent questions, such as: Will spe-cies and ecosystems of marine origin have the potential to adapt and survive the coming 50-100 years inside the Baltic Sea? If so, what is needed in terms of popu-lation sizes, population connec-tivity and genetic variation? And, what governance structures, poli-cy instruments and management measures can help provide the re-quired population structures and traits?

BAMBI is a multi-discipli-nary project integrating leading

research competences in genetics and genomics, population ecol-ogy, biophysical modelling, con-servation genetic and political sciences. In addition, BAMBI is establishing an operational sci-ence-policy interface and a strong end-user involvement. Further-more, BAMBI will take advantage of state-of-the-art research meth-ods, such as the next generation sequencing, population genom-ics, climate-driven and spatial-ly explicit modelling targeting four ecologically important Baltic Sea species that each contribute with different ecosystem func-tions (primary production, graz-ing, and predation), and together constitute a dominant part of a Baltic Sea seaweed ecosystem (one fish, two seaweed species, and one crustacean).

A main goal of BAMBI is to introduce new types of scientif-ic data with high relevance for ecosystem-based management of biodiversity under environmen-tal change, and use these results to outline new governance and policy principles. One additional important issue will be to identify governance systems and institu-tions that are important for the transfer of scientific knowledge on biological diversity into func-tional management policies and principles.

sweden University of Gothenburg (coordinating partner)Luleå University of Technology Stockholm University

estoniaEstonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu

GermanyHelmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

FinlandUniversity of Turku

ProJeCt PArtners

Key theme

1.2 causes and consequences of changing biodiversity

supplementary themes

1.1 ecosystem resilience and dynamics of biogeochemical processes, including cumulative impacts of human pressure

4.1 Governance structures, policy performance and policy instruments

5.1 Developing and improving scientific basis for integrated monitoring programmes for continuous assessment of ecological status and human pressures

themes from the BONUS strategic research agenda 2011–2017 covered

BAMBI Baltic Sea marine biodiversity

The outline of the Bambi project showing integration of science, social science and end-user knowledge to reach the overall goal of management plans that takes into account the potential of species to adapt (to the extent possible) to a changing environment.

the May 2013 issue of this newsletter introduced readers to the living nature of the strategic research agenda of BonUs1. now, having the update 2013 of the agenda completed, it is a good time to look back and summarise the most important novelties in the document that will underpin the BonUs calls for research and innovation proposals to be announced in 2014.

by Andris Andrusaitis, Programme Manager, BONUS

Taking stock of the new knowledge delivered by the BONUS+ projects and

new scientific developments both within the Baltic Sea region as well as outside its borders has resulted in an update of every chapter of the strategic research agenda. This has been accom-plished by an in-depth analysis of the dynamic policy landscape2, consultation with the stakehold-ers through the consultation plat-forms established in BONUS3, and, finally, the intensive work by the dedicated update drafting team.

In chapter 1 that introduces the main challenges to be met in the Baltic Sea region, more em-phasis has been put on the neces-sity of achieving sustainability of coastal and marine ecosystem services. The concept of sustain-able ecosystem services positions the BONUS research programme as a generator of new crucial knowledge not only for protection of the environment of the Bal-tic Sea and its drainage basin, but in an equal degree also to many various sectors of economic ac-tivities. Be it recreation and tour-ism, fisheries and aquaculture, harvesting renewable energy or developing blue bio-economy, or many others – sustainable devel-opment depends on the quality of the services provided to hu-mans by the marine ecosystem. The concept of ecosystem servic-es also highlights the importance of achieving a truly interdiscipli-nary research which still remains

a challenge to be met.Substantial amendment has

been made to chapter 2 analys-ing the landscape for the glob-al, European and macroregional policies relevant to BONUS. This has been necessitated by the dy-namic policy development that has taken place since the drafting of the initial strategic research agenda in 2010-2011. To men-tion only a few, the HELCOM Ministerial Meetings of 2010 and 2013 assessed the achievement and set further specific objectives for implementation of the Baltic Sea Action Plan, while Europe-an Commission launched in 2011 the new EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020. In 2012, an EC communi-cation on Blue Growth opportu-nities for marine and maritime sustainable growth was published and, in 2013, a significant pro-gress was achieved in renewing the EU Common Fisheries Policy. An update of the BONUS policy landscape was a result of consid-erable deeper analysis undertak-en and published by the BONUS Secretariat (see BONUS Publica-tion No. 13).

Descriptions of the strategic objectives and themes in chapter 3 have also been revised substan-tially. Most importantly for the applicants of the future BONUS calls, formulations of the ex-pected outcomes under various themes have been streamlined significantly. New emphasis has emerged while unnecessary de-tails have been omitted. We be-lieve that presenting the outcomes

in this way sends a clear message on what kind of research is ex-pected from the future applicants of the proposals. • In the strategic objective 1

more emphasis has been put on the spatial aspects of the structure and function of the marine ecosystems, the role of organic matter in biogeochem-ical processes, and the “new pollutants” as well as on nano and micro particles which po-tentially threaten the marine biota.

• The expected outcomes under the strategic objective 2 have been amended by scenarios of future sustainable land man-agement with quantified ef-fects on coastal ecosystem services, as well as a feasibility study of the new eco-techno-logical solutions.

• One of the most fundamen-tally reworked themes of the BONUS strategic research agenda is the Sustainable aq-uaculture in the Baltic Sea under the strategic objective 3.

•The updated formulation of the BONUS strategic objective

4 addressing the societal chal-lenges requires now very ex-plicitly development of models for comparative and conse-quential analyses of cumula-tive benefits and trade-offs of different marine ecosystem services and presents more clearly the tasks of research in support of maritime spatial planning.

• Finally, the strategic objective 5 emphasises the new research needs for monitoring: under-water noise and marine litter. In line with the evolution of the general concept it also provides clearer linkage between the op-portunities provided by the de-velopment in the information and communication technolo-gies and sustainable use of ma-rine ecosystem services.

The complicated task of updat-ing the BONUS strategic research agenda could not been accom-plished without enthusiastic sup-port of many competent experts to whom we, the BONUS Secre-tariat, wish to express our deepest gratitude:

Agneta Andersson, Nerijus Blazauskas, Bodo von Bodungen, Bernd Bruegge, Daniel Conley, Mikhail Durkin, Jüri Elken, Erik Fellenius, Valery Forbes, Zita Gasiūnaitė, Lars‐Anders Hansson, William Hogland, Hans‐Jörg Isemer, Marko Joas, Anders Kiessling, Maris Klavins, Michael Kleyer, Georgs Kornilovs, Fritz Köster, Pentti Kujala, Maria Laamanen, Jussi Lankoski, Diane Martin, Elina Nikkola, Henn Ojaveer, Henrik Österblom, Ksenia Pazdro, Katrin Rehdanz, Bo Riemann, Henrik Scharin, Monika Stankiewicz, Markku Viitasalo, Jacek Zaucha, as well as all the participants of the BONUS Strategic Orientation Workshop in Tallinn, September 2013.

To download your personal copy of the BONuS strategic research agenda, update 2013, visit www.bonusportal.org/sra (published in early 2014) or for hard copy, email [email protected].

For quickest updates on the BONUS calls to be announced in 2014 based on the strategic research agenda, update 2013, subscribe to the BONUS e-bulletin at www.bonusportal.org/bulletin or visit the news updates at www.bonusportal.org.

BONUS strategic research agenda updated:

Highlights of a joint effort

Discussion is ongoing at the BONUS strategic orientation workshop in Tallinn, September 2013, in preparation of the BONUS strategic research agenda update 2013.

1 A. Andrusaitis: The living research agenda for the Baltic Sea. BONUS in Brief, May 20132 A. Andrusaitis, K. Kononen and M. Sirola: Policy framework analysis in the fields relevant to the BONUS programme. BONUS Publication No. 13, 2013 3 M. Sirola: Better knowledge for the better future of the Baltic Sea. BONUS in Brief, May 2013

BONUS in collaboration with the research funders of the BONUS call 2012: Viable ecosystem present the new projects on pages 5–9:

BON

uS

KERSTIN JOHANNESSON


Developing a genetic tool for environmental monitoring in the Baltic sea

by Lasse Riemann, Coordinator of BLUEPRINT

With the exception of fila-mentous cyanobacte-ria, microbes and the

fundamental processes they are driving are generally ignored as environmental indicators in the Baltic Sea. However, in aquatic systems, the numerous micro-organisms, bacteria and ar-chaea, generally process more than half of the carbon fixed by local photosynthesis and medi-ate most transformations in the cycling of nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients (Fig. 1). In

addition, microorganisms react sensitively and rapidly to any en-vironmental change. Due to dif-ferences in growth requirements and high turnover rates of micro-organisms, microbial commu-nities are dynamic assemblages that promptly respond to envi-ronmental change. Therefore, the combined gene-pool maintained and expressed by the microbes (the microbial genetic blueprint) reflects contemporary nutrient fluxes mediated by the microbes and this is intimately linked to

local environmental conditions. The EU Marine Strategy

Framework Directive puts new demands on the member states to monitor and assess the state of the Baltic Sea through an ecosys-tem-based approach. The Direc-tive underlines that zooplankton and phytoplankton should be included in the assessment of en-vironmental state but the micro-organisms are strangely omitted from the regulatory documents. Moreover, the importance of functional aspects and energy flow is acknowledged; yet, the good environmental status indi-cators that the Directive proposes are focusing on the abundance of higher organisms. Thus, this new and ambitious directive with a

holistic perspective on the ecosys-tem is disappointingly leaving out microorganisms – despite of their pivotal role for status and func-tion of the Baltic Sea.

In the past, analysis of mi-crobes was time-consuming, expensive and inaccurate. This situation has changed in the last 10 years by the development and application of novel cultivation-independent molecular tech-niques for analysing complex microbial communities, allowing for a significantly improved un-derstanding of microbial meta-bolic processes and pathways. Indeed, it has become evident that abundant microorganisms, and their genes and transcripts, can be used as sensitive and

immediate markers for contem-porary environmental conditions and the occurrence of certain stress conditions that may alter nutrient fluxes, e.g., changed nu-trient ratios, pollution, hypoxia and climate change. Thus, assess-ment of environmental status and the associated monitoring may be dramatically improved using ge-netic (metagenomic or metatran-scriptomic) approaches directed at microorganisms.

The goal of the BLUEPRINT project is to demonstrate the functionality of a publicly avail-able resource with the capacity to deduce environmental status and dominant biogeochemical pathways from the biodiversity and genetic functional profiles of

Changing antifouling practices for leisure boats in the Baltic sea

by Mia Dahlström, Coordinator of CHANGE

A staggering 3.5 million leisure boats have their homeports in the Bal-

tic Sea. Eighty per cent of these boats have paints containing toxic heavy metals and organic boost-er biocides that prevent growth of benthic organisms, so called biofouling, on their hulls. These toxins pose a serious threat to the sensitive coastal waters of the Bal-tic Sea.

Biofouling makes boats run slower, increases fuel consump-tion and impairs manoeuvrabil-ity. Biofouling is combated by toxic heavy metals used in paint formulations that, in order to be effective, will leak its content to the marine environment. What is left of the paint at the end of the boating season is scraped off at the boat yard. Toxic heavy met-als in the scraped off paint ends up on the ground and is further transported to the ground water or to the sea close to the marina. This procedure is repeated year after year. Thus, it is an unaccep-table risk to the Baltic Sea eco-system, including humans in the region, to allow the continued use of toxic heavy metals in antifoul-ing paints.

Highly promising solutions,

that in an environmentally safe way combat biofouling, are emerging. However, for these to make it into eco-innovations, changes are needed on all levels of society – from the outline of the regulatory framework to changes in market actors including leisure boating cultures and institutions.

The CHANGE project brings together scientists from natural science, business administration and environmental law to devel-op entirely new ways of solving an environmental problem. The CHANGE project sets out to map changes needed to reduce the supply of toxic antifouling com-pounds to the Baltic Sea environ-ment and provide new powerful instruments for Baltic Sea poli-cies.

The most important and ur-gent challenges in the field of antifouling toxins are that con-sumer antifouling needs are currently met through a) con-ventional toxic products and b) boating practices embedded in various Baltic boating cultures. The current legal framework and the influence of conventional market actors mean eco-inno-vations are not seen as the nec-essary or preferred option to

combat marine biofouling. The performance of eco-innovations or paints with low biocide content has low credibility with consum-ers. The most commonly used toxin in marine paints is copper. To date what is known about the effects of copper on non-target organisms is minimal. CHANGE will, during the next four years, study the performance of avail-able products and the effect of copper on sensitive ecosystem-shaping behaviours in marine organisms such as mate search and homing. We will also map the legal framework and perform in-depth studies to thoroughly understand consumer practices related to boating behaviour and boating use. Understanding boat owners’ patterns of behaviour is essential for the policy and regu-lative aspects of CHANGE. Bans or legal restrictions alone might not result in the desired effect. The CHANGE project includes building communication net-works and developing strategies for stakeholder collaboration and training. The CHANGE project has a strong regional aspect and similar studies and collaborative processes will be performed in Sweden, Finland and Germany.

CHANGE

swedenSP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Borås (coordinating partner)SIK – the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, GothenburgUniversity of GothenburgStockholm University

DenmarkUniversity of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg

FinlandAalto University, EspooUniversity of Helsinki

GermanyLaboratory for Freshwater, Marine Research and Comparative Pathology, Hamburg

ProJeCt PArtners

Key theme

4.1 Governance structures, policy performance and policy instruments


1.4 Multilevel impacts of hazardous substances

2.2 Meeting the multifaceted challenges in linking the Baltic Sea with its coast and catchment


Key theme




1.1 ecosystem resilience and dynamics of biogeochemical processes, including cumulative impacts of human pressures

1.3 Food web structure and dynamics


BLUEPRINTBiological lenses using gene prints

Fig. 1. Microscope view at 1200x magnification of Baltic Sea bacteria and archaea (large dots) and viruses (small dots) stained with the DNA stain SYBR Green I. An average liter of Baltic seawater contains roughly a billion bacteria/archaea with a length of 0.5 – 1.0 µm.

ProJeCt PArtners

DenmarkUniversity of Copenhagen, Helsingør (coordinating partner)

estoniaInstitute of Technology, University of Tartu

FinlandUniversity of Helsinki

GermanyLeibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock

swedenKTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Linnaeus University, Kalmar Stockholm University

microbes, the blueprint, in a sea-water sample. This resource will be established as an operation-al virtual Blueprint Competence Centre, where blueprints are gen-erated and analysed, followed by an evaluation of the environmen-tal status. Finally, the genomic information will be used to vali-date and improve biogeochemi-cal models of the Baltic Sea. The project includes small- and large-scale experimental approaches, cruises, genomic analyses and modelling, and discussion forums with stakeholders, end-users, and experts involved in monitoring and environmental legislation.

Germany Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (coordinating partner)Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, University of HamburgThünen Institute for Baltic Sea Fisheries, Rostock

DenmarkNational Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby DHI, Hørsholm

estonia Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu

FinlandFinnish Environment Institute, HelsinkiÅbo Akademi University, Turku

Lithuania Marine Science and Technology Center, Klaipėda University

Poland National Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Gdynia

swedenStockholm UniversityUniversity of GothenburgSwedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping

ProJeCt PArtners

Key theme




2.2 The role of the coastal systems in the dynamics of the Baltic Sea

3.3 improving stock assessments and resolving spatial heterogeneity and temporal dynamics of the Baltic Sea fish stocks



Investigating causes, consequences and management implications

by Thorsten Reusch, Coordinator of BIO-C3

As a relatively well-stud-ied semi-enclosed ocean basin, the Baltic Sea plays

a special role for biodiversity re-search. Due to its young age and varying salinities only relatively few species are the key ecological players. Along with several avail-able oceanographic and biologi-cal time-series, this allows for a systemic analysis of spatial pat-terns, temporal changes and lays the foundation for experimen-tal work that addresses ecosys-tem functioning. Moreover, the present species assembly is under constant change, as non-indige-nous species continue to estab-lish in the Baltic, climate change alters the physical environment, and fishing changes food webs and predation pressure. Thus, while being species poor, human influences on the Baltic ecosys-tem are larger than in most other sea regions as this marginal sea is surrounded by densely popu-lated areas, especially in the south and east.

BIO-C3 will investigate caus-es and consequences of changes in biodiversity, emphasising ef-fects on ecosystem function and implications for environmental management. Applying a novel, integrated approach, biodiver-sity is addressed on genotype, species, population, trait, habitat

and ecosystem levels. On the one hand, the existing biodiver-sity data and data on potential drivers are collected and synthe-sized, while on the other, addi-tional research efforts will close important knowledge gaps in several key areas, for example, related to adaptation of organ-isms to climate change and food-web alterations due to species invasions.

The key objectives of BIO-C3 are i) an assessment of the rela-tive roles of acclimation, adapta-tion and colonisation of native vs. non-indigenous species, ii) an ad-vancement of the understanding of functional links between bio-diversity, external pressures and food-web interactions and iii) an improvement of our capacity to project future biodiversity.

Using improved knowledge obtained in BIO-C3, and exist-ing large-scale data sets, biodiver-sity responses in space and time will be addressed by hind-casts and projections of abiotic/biotic/anthropogenic drivers including their interaction (climate change, eutrophication, species invasions, fisheries) in spatially explicit models.

The participating scientists will take advantage of numerous preliminary and long-term stud-ies of the participating institutes

and universities such as studies on fish stocks, plankton organ-isms and environmental condi-tions that are conducted several times a year with the help of Kiel’s research vessel ALKOR. This could become important when the Baltic continues to ex-perience lower salinity, become warmer and suffer decreasing ox-ygen levels as predicted.

A central question is wheth-er important organisms such as zooplankton and fish can adapt to the different environmental con-ditions, and if not, whether they alter their distribution or die out. Using the increased understand-ing of the processes gained dur-ing the course of the project, the scientists will formulate recom-mendations on improving the management of the Baltic bio-diversity. The identified gradi-ents of human impacts will feed into impact assessments, guid-ing management policies includ-ing improved operationalisation of good environmental status in-dicators of the EU Marine Strat-egy Framework Directive, marine protected areas and management evaluation frameworks. Concern-ing adaptation to the expected climate change, the BIO-C3 re-searchers will cooperate closely with the BONUS project BAMBI (see page 5).

BIO-C3 Biodiversity changes

THORSTEN REUSCH

MIA DAHLSTRöM

LASSE RIEMANN


Improving understanding of the transformation and retention of nutrients and organic matter in the coastal zone

by Jacob Carstensen, Coordinator of COCOA

Eutrophication caused by ex-cessive discharges of nutri-ents from land is the largest

ecological problem in the Bal-tic Sea. Consequences are large blooms of noxious cyanobacteria in summer and an unprecedented large dead zone extending more than 60,000 km2, equivalent to the size of Latvia. Nutrient reduc-tions are required to reestablish a healthy Baltic Sea, as acknowl-edged in the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

The coastal zone constitutes an important filter regulating nutrient inputs from land to the open sea. Nutrients are trans-formed and removed in a com-plex mosaic of processes by microbial communities, plants and animals with environmental conditions, such as salinity and oxygen concentrations, modulat-ing the process rates. The pro-ject COCOA will investigate how these nutrient processes are regulated across different coastal zones around the Baltic Sea and how nutrient retention can be improved through coastal zone management.

COCOA will study seven

coastal ecosystems in detail, rep-resenting four types of coastal systems: 1) river-dominated estu-aries, 2) lagoons, 3) embayments with restricted water exchange, and 4) archipelagos. Using state-of-the-art techniques, nutrient transformation and removal rates will be measured during field campaigns at these learning sites to obtain an improved seasonal description across various coastal habitats, characterised by differ-ent salinity, temperature, nutri-ent, oxygen and light conditions as well as different benthic com-munities. These measurements will be used to improve the pro-cess description in current coast-al ecosystem models, scaling-up knowledge obtained from the field measurement to the ecosys-tem level. This will allow quan-tifying nutrient retention across the many different coastal zones around the Baltic Sea and as-sessing the overall coastal nutri-ent retention. Experimental work and modelling are equally im-portant in COCOA, and link-ing knowledge across disciplines will have particular focus in the project.

The improved understand-ing of the mechanisms regulat-ing nutrient transformation and removal will be used to assess if changes in nutrient retentions may have occurred over time. In most parts of the Baltic Sea the coastal zone has undergone se-vere changes over the last cen-tury. Productive benthic habitats have disappeared due to reduced water transparency shading out the benthic vegetation and oxy-gen depletion changing faunal communities. These changes are believed to have ramifications for the removal and transformation of nutrients in the coastal zone, and consequently the nutrient fil-ter capacity.

Using the established knowl-edge on nutrient processing in different coastal habitats, COCOA will investigate if coastal nutrient retention may similarly have changed over time with the loss of certain benthic communi-ties. The potential loss of coastal nutrient retention has conse-quences for the export of nutri-ents from land to the open Baltic Sea, and this will affect nutrient reduction targets in the Baltic Sea Acton Plan required to establish HELCOM’s ecological objectives. COCOA will address how nutri-ent reductions may affect pelagic and benthic communities as well as the nutrient removal in the coastal zone.

COCOA Nutrient cocktails in coastal zones

Professor Jacob Carstensen from Aarhus University, Denmark (coordinator) and Professor Daniel Conley from Lund University, Sweden (vice-coordinator)

Denmark Aarhus University (coordinating partner)Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby

FinlandÅbo Akademi University, TurkuFinnish Environment Institute, HelsinkiUniversity of Helsinki

GermanyLeibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde, Rostock

Lithuania Marine Science and Technology Center, Klaipèda University

the netherlands Utrecht University

PolandUniversity of Gdańsk

russiaZoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg

swedenUniversity of GothenburgLund UniversityStockholm UniversitySwedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping

ProJeCt PArtners

estoniaEstonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu (coordinating partner)

DenmarkNational Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby

FinlandFinnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute, Helsinki

GermanyThünen Institute for Baltic Sea Fisheries, RostockInstitute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, University of HamburgHelmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

LatviaInstitute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment, Riga

PolandNational Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Gdynia

swedenLund University Stockholm UniversitySwedish University of Agricultural Sciences, UppsalaUppsala University, Campus Gotland, Visby

ProJeCt PArtners

Key theme

2.2 The role of coastal systems in the dynamics of the Baltic Sea


1.1 ecosystem resilience and dynamics of biogeochemical processes, including cumulative impacts of human pressures




Key theme

3.3 improving stock assessments and resolving spatialheterogeneity and temporal dynamics of the Baltic Sea fish stocks




3.4 evaluation framework for fisheries management



Process-based understand-ing of changes in spatial distributions of commer-

cial fish , disentangling the role of natural drivers and various human induced impacts form the challenging topic for the re-search project INSPIRE. The project sets out to fill in the most persistent gaps in knowledge of the spatial ecolology of the major commercial fish and thereby support the effectiveness of the relevant policies and ecosystem-based management of the Bal-tic Sea. The project aims to serve as a ”framework axis project“ to which other Baltic Sea research could link to.

INSPIRE is designed to sub-stantially advance our knowledge on the major commercial fish spe-cies in the Baltic Sea (cod, her-ring, sprat and flounder). These fish form more than 95% of the commercial catches, and repre-sent key elements of the Baltic Sea ecosystems.

The objectives of the INSPIRE project are to:1. Quantify processes generating

heterogeneity in spatial distri-butions of cod, herring, sprat and flounder.

2. Quantify and map potential hazards to the connectivity between identified key habi-tats, and assess the impact of human induced and climat-ic environmental changes on habitat connectivity.

3. Quantify the population dy-namics and interactions of the fish species in a spatially ex-plicit context.

4. Develop spatially explicit ad-vice for ecosystem-based fish-eries management of Baltic cod, herring, sprat and floun-der, accounting for the spatial heterogeneity in fish distribu-tions.

To accomplish these objectives, INSPIRE will answer the follow-ing fundamental research ques-tions:1. What are the marine habitat

conditions that characterise the spatial distributions of cod, herring, sprat and flounder?

2. To what extent do fishing and species interaction affect the local and basin-scale distribu-tion of commercially exploited stocks?

3. What drives spatial connectiv-ity and migrations of different fish species/populations?

4. How does stock structure and separation of natural popula-tions impact stock assessment outcomes?

INSPIRE proposes pilot eco-system field surveys to resolve the habitat requirements of dif-ferent life-stages of fish species by combined use of tradition-al methods and application of modern advanced analysis techniques, for example otolith microchemistry and biochemi-cal techniques. The surveys are conducted in close collabora-tion with local fishermen. Their inclusion will strengthen then participatory spirit in the im-plementation of INSPRE results into ecosystem-based fisheries

INSPIRE

management, and improve the data collection.

INSPIRE will generate new data and operational models that allow making projections on spatial distributions of key com-mercial fish species of the Baltic on different spatial and tempo-ral scales, and their integration in analytical assessments and ecosystem-based fisheries man-agement. Moreover, as main providers of management advice on Baltic fish stocks, INSPIRE partners are also able to translate these model outputs into urgent-ly needed advice on how to move best beyond spatially homogene-ous approach of current fishery and ecosystem assessments, and adopt spatially explicit ecosys-tem-oriented management. The INSPIRE project is addressing major research objectives set forth by the revised EU Com-mon Fisheries Policy, the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the EU Marine and Maritime Research Strategy and the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan.

Stakeholder involvement starts already at the data gen-eration phase and continues till the end of the project. The major stakeholders include Baltic Sea Regional Advisory Council, In-ternational Council for the Explo-ration of the Sea and the Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission. In addition, IN-SPIRE will closely cooperate with national fisheries management bodies and ministerial authori-ties.

reducing nutrient loadings from agricultural soils to the Baltic sea via groundwater and streams

by Jens Christian Refsgaard, Coordinator of Soils2Sea

Both the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the EU Water Framework Directive re-

quires substantial further reduc-tions of nutrient loads (N and P) to the Baltic Sea during the com-ing years. Achievements of these goals will only be possible by the implementation of fundamental changes in agricultural practices and land use. This will require the introduction of additional new and innovative measures, because the easiest applicable measures have, in most cases, already been utilised.

SOILS2SEA proposes to ex-ploit the fact that the retention (removal by biogeochemical processes or sedimentation) of nutrients in groundwater and surface water systems shows a significant spatial variation, depending on the local hydro-geological and riverine regime to achieve the goals for nutri-ent load reduction set out in the Baltic Sea Action Plan. The

traditional uniform regulations do not account for local data and knowledge and are much less cost-effective than spatially differentiated regulations with measures targeted towards areas where the natural retention is low. In order to fully exploit the potential of differentiated regu-lations it is required to utilise all local information and find lo-cally designed and optimised solutions. Besides the need for improved knowledge on the subsurface and nutrient trans-port and retention processes on a local scale, this calls for new innovative governance regimes with active involvement of key stakeholders. Not the least as the new measures most probably will differentially affect stakeholder groups with conflicting interests.

If we more accurately can pre-dict where in a catchment N and P are retained by estimating the retention in the different com-partments along the flow path,

and also include the delayed ef-fects of mitigation measures due to long solute travel times in groundwater, then we can more cost-effectively design measures to reduce the nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea. SOILS2SEA will there-fore study the retention of N and P between the soils/sewage outlets and the coast, including transport pathways such as overland flow and flows in macropores, subsur-face tile drains, shallow and deep groundwater, rivers, wetlands and lakes. The concept and the Soils-2Sea work packages are illustrat-ed in the figure below.

The key outcomes of SOILS-2SEA will be:• New methodologies for the

planning of differentiated reg-ulations based on new knowl-edge of nutrient transport and retention processes between soils/sewage outlets and the coast.

• Evaluation of how differenti-ated regulation can offer more

cost efficient solutions towards reducing the nutrient loads to the Baltic Sea.

• Analysis of how changes in land use and climate may af-fect the nutrient load to the Baltic Sea as well as the opti-mal location of measures aim-ing at reducing the load.

• A high-resolution model for the entire Baltic Sea Basin with improved process descrip-tions of nutrient retention in groundwater and surface water tailored to make detailed sim-ulations of management regu-lations differentiated in space.

• New knowledge based govern-ance and monitoring concepts that acknowledge the relevant aspects of EU directives and at the same time are tailored to-wards decentralised decision making. The proposed spa-tially differentiated regulations will aim for incorporation of local scale knowledge to opti-mally design solutions.

SOILS2SEA

DenmarkGeological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, Copenhagen (coordinating partner)Aarhus University Sorbisense, Tjele

GermanyEcologic Institute, Berlin

PolandAGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow

russiaAtlantic Branch of P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaliningrad

swedenKTH Royal Institute of Technology, StockholmSwedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Norrköping

ProJeCt PArtners

Key theme

2.1 changes in catchment land cover patterns


4.1 Governance structures, performance and policy instruments

5.1 integrated monitoring programmes


Integrating spatial processes into ecosystem models for sustainable utilisation of fish resources

by Henn Ojaveer, Coordinator of INSPIRE

HENN OJAVEER JENS CHRISTIAN REFSGAARD


At the end of August 2013, the 9th Baltic sea science Congress draw together close to 300 marine scientists, experts and young researchers of the Baltic sea region, and wider, to the sea-side university town of Klaipeda, Lithuania.

The 5-day Congress convened to exchange information and strengthen interdis-ciplinary approaches

around the Baltic Sea. It was de-voted to the presentation of re-sults of research on the climate, physics, chemistry, biology and geology of the region.

BONUS invited keynote speaker Professor Frank Glöck-ner from the Max Planck Insti-tute for Marine Microbiology and Jacobs University Bremen gGmbH, Germany, who deliv-ered an interesting keynote on the opening day of the Congress titled “Environmental bioinfor-matics – with a focus on ‘marine”. Another BONUS invited lecture was given on the closing day by Professor Daniel Conley from the Lund University, Sweden, who considered in his crowd draw-ing presentation the question “Is geoengineering an acceptable so-lution for Baltic Sea eutrophica-tion?” The full programme and a photo gallery from the Congress can be viewed at http://corpi.ku.lt/bssc2013/

Popular ‘engaging researcher’ themed afternoon for young scientistsBONUS sponsored public en-gagement themed afternoon aimed at the young research-ers of the Baltic Sea region was held on the fourth day of the Congress. Ms. Joanna Gawryl-czyk-Malesa, Information and Communication Officer from the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission set the scene for the afternoon with a lecture titled “Leaving the ivory tower – why and how engage in science com-munication”.

An interactive public engage-ment workshop ‘The engaging researcher’ facilitated by a pro-fessional researcher trainer, Mr. Paul Toombs from the UK was next on the agenda. This three-hour workshop was designed to inspire young researchers and support to engage the public with their work. It was noted that an engaging researcher is just like any other researcher - with one important difference. Engaging researchers go out of their way to involve the public with their re-search. They open up opportu-nities for others to get involved, provide new perspectives on the value of their work, and stimu-late people to be curious about the world of research - and why it matters.

The evening ended in a relaxed atmosphere of games and dining at the fourth BONUS-sponsored Young Scientists Club evening or-ganised by Ilona Minevičiūtė to-gether with other young scientists of the Klaipeda University.

Based on the feedback received from the participants, not only was the public engagement con-sidered an important topic with a lot of demand ‘out there’ for the early career researchers, but an overwhelming majority viewed also all the different activities of the afternoon positively and ea-gerly, and interactively and with enthusiasm participated in eve-rything. When asked “What did you like about the afternoon”, one participant said “It made me realise that I have done public engagement already before and won’t be afraid of trying again!” Another wrote “It’s inspiring, it gives perspectives to our research. Also it’s a chance to meet other young scientists in similar do-mains.”, and a third said “Useful

activities, interesting topic (pub-lic engagement is something I like and would like to be better in) but at the same time relaxing atmos-phere.”

As for the less liked experi-ences, some constructive feedback was provided: “A bit more theory could be given on communication strategy techniques and on public/

people to target for public engage-ment.” “Next time earlier in the week please to get to know each other!” As for suggestions for fu-ture themes for young scientists’ training, participants noted “more on public engagement!”, “time management” and “how to write down text with impact” to name a few. So until next time!

The ambition of the BONUS sponsored Young Scientist Club is to promote the creation of net-works of tomorrow’s leading Baltic Sea scientists in the early stages of their careers. www.bonusportal.org/ysc

MS

The 9th Baltic Sea Science Congress

The 9th Baltic Sea Science Congress was organised by the Klaipėda University, Coastal Research & Planning Institute and Association Baltic Valley in cooperation with BONUS, the Baltic Lagoon Research Network and a number of scientific societies, with large contributions from the Conference of Baltic Oceanographers, Baltic Marine Biologists, and Baltic Sea Geologists.

Participants of the ‘Engaging researcher’ workshop engrossed in group activities.

Vik

TOri

ja V

aiT

keV

icie

Ne

Vik

TOri

ja V

ai T

keV

icie

Ne

From the members of the advisory Board:

The Plenary Session: How jobs and ecology go together at the 4th annual forum of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region.

HELCOM

Master blueprint ready for future regional actions for a healthier Baltic sea - The Min-isters of the environment and High-Level representatives of the nine Baltic coastal countries and the european union, convened in a HeLcOM Meeting in copenha-gen, Denmark on 3 October 2013 and reached an agreement on a package of extensive actions and measures. This will open up new

themes to be addressed in the protection of the Baltic Sea. after a year of negotiations, the new HeLcOM Ministerial outcome ex-presses the ambition of the Bal-tic Sea region to become a model for good management of human activities and to steer regional ac-tions for reaching a healthier ma-rine environment for the Baltic Sea.

For further information, visit www.helcom.fi

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)

the International Council for the exploration of the sea sets its vision to advance scientific understanding of marine eco-systems, for use in integrated ad-vice, based on timely and accurate data and information, in support

of an ecosystem-based approach to ocean management. The new Strategic Plan charts the course for the organisation for the next five years 2014–2018 and configures its resources and competencies to ful-fil stakeholder expectations.

For further information, visit www.ices.dk

Baltic Sea Region Programme What have the environmental projects worked with? What can a

sustainable resource management for a healthy Baltic Sea mean? The an-swer can be found here: http://helcom.fi/helcom-at-work/projects/bal-tic-impulse-cluster/

From aMBiO journal: AMBIo Vol. 43, issue 1 on BonUs+ will

be published in early 2014 in open access for-mat. it will feature a synthesis of the research outcomes of the BONuS+ call launched in 2007

that resulted into funding and implementation of 16 projects from 2009 until 2011.

available online in january and in print in February 2014.

Event highlights from autumn 2013:

the 4th annual forum of the european Union strategy for the Baltic sea region:Baltic sea, Baltic growth, Baltic environment11–12 november 2013, VilniusBONuS delivered a speech and participated in a panel in the Plenary Session: How jobs and ecology go together, in a work-shop: Baltic Blue growth organ-ised by the Directorate-General for Maritime affairs and Fish-eries, european commission and in a workshop coopera-tion for a healthier BSr environ-ment- achievements and funding opportunities for 2014–2020 or-ganised by the Baltic Sea region Programme.

the Baltic Development Forum “Baltic sea Conference 2013: Blue Growth, sustainability and Water Industries”3 october 2013, CopenhagenBONuS spoke in a session Blue Growth and Save the Sea: New Partnerships?

the Baltic sea Parliamentary Conference25 August 2013, Pärnu BONuS delivered a speech in the plenary

newsFrom BONuS:

Workshop activity: Public engagement methods and activities filled in by participants into a series of layers, like an onion. With each layer the focus moves from two-way dialogue and co-design or co-decision making to telling or information giving. Hence the impact on ‘your’ research or on influencing policy decreases as ‘you’ move towards the outer layers of the onion.

New publications:

BONuS strategic research agenda 2011–2017, update 2013 out in january 2014

BONuS brochure 2013, visit BONuS homepage at www. bonusportal.org for downloads

all publications can be viewed at www.bonusportal. org/publications and hard copies ordered by emailing to [email protected]

MS

BONUS VISION

Economically and ecologically prosperous

Baltic Sea region where resources and goods

are used sustainably and where the long-term

management of the region is based on sound

knowledge derived from multidisciplinary research.

Dr. Eugenijus Butkus, the Vice Rector for Research of Vilnius University, the

Vice President of the European Science Foundation and a mem-ber of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, commenced as the Chair of the BONUS Steering Committee on 1 July 2013. Leszek Grabarczyk from the National Centre for Research and Devel-opment, Poland acts as the Vice-Chair. The Chairmanship of the BONUS Steering Committee ro-tates every July.

What is your professional background?

I obtained my PhD in 1979 and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Prague Institute of Chemi-cal Technology for the follow-ing year. My research focuses on development of new materi-als, supramolecular chemistry, and science policy. During the 1990s and 2000s, I worked also at the Lund University and Brus-sels Vrije University, in the SO-CRATES programme and as a researcher made visits to Prince-ton and Minnesota Universities in the States. More recently, I have acted as the group coordina-tor of the international coopera-tion projects of Nordic Council

(NordForsk) projects “Crystal Engineering and Supramolecu-lar Materials” (2006–2010), and “Excellent Nordic Chemistry” (2010–2014). Currently I am the coordinator of a FP7 collaborative project Servicizing Policy for Re-source Efficient Economy (2012–2015).

Lithuania has been a BONUS EEIG member since the very beginning – from 2007. What has been the most memorable event to date?Through the BONUS programme, for the first time Lithuanian re-searchers were funded also from

national resources when the eval-uations were carried out by an in-ternational peer review process. This also stimulated the interna-tional peer reviewing for other national funding schemes. In ad-dition, the participation in the in-ternational thematic programme initiated the design of national re-search programmes by the Lithu-anian Research Council.

As for the future, what do you consider BONUS’s strengths to be?Widening the scope of the pro-gramme and involvement of other countries, and including other

seas, not only the Baltic Sea. I think that the programme would become even more attractive if the option could be open for re-search projects not only accord-ing to the thematic topics but also bottom-up research opportuni-ties contributing to the specific research and industrially impor-tant areas related to the strategic research agenda.

MS

Chair of BONUS Steering Committee, Dr. Eugenijus Butkus

Denmark• Danish agency for Science, Technology and innovation

& Danish council for Strategic research

estonia• estonian research council

Finland• FirD coop & academy of Finland

Germany• Forschungszentrum jülich Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH

& Federal Ministry of education and research

Latvia• Latvian academy of Sciences & Ministry of education and

Science of the republic of Latvia

Lithuania• research council of Lithuania & Ministry of education and

Science of the republic of Lithuania

Poland• Foundation for the Development of Gdansk university • National centre for research and Development &

Ministry for Science and Higher education

sweden• Swedish agency for Marine and Water Management• Swedish research council for environment, agricultural

Sciences and Spatial Planning FOrMaS• Swedish environmental Protection agency

BONUS members

BONuS is funded by national research funding institutions in the eight eu member states around the

Baltic Sea and the eu research Framework Programme

We wish you a wonderful Christmas time with family and friends& happiness and success all through the New Year

iSTO

ck

The BONUS Secretariat: Kaisa, Andris, Maija, Markku, Meelis, Minna and Tiina

Documents

in Brief December 2013 - Bonus EEIG · in Brief December 2013 In many ways this autumn has been for BONUS a turning point: we have looked back on the now closed BONUS+ phase, decided