The Atlantic Project Awards feature outstanding initiatives, successful collaborations and achievements relevant to the implementation of the Atlantic Action Plan 2.0. This year, five awards were granted as recognition of the projects’ outstanding performance, in the following award categories, which are in line with the Pillars of the Atlantic Action Plan 2.0:
Atlantic Ports: LIVING PORTS - The LIVING PORTS project is a groundbreaking initiative in port sustainability, with innovative technology designed to foster the development of rich and diverse marine life as part of coastal marine infrastructures such as seawalls, breakwaters and urban piers.
- Achieved Results: Cost-effective, scalable innovation applied to the very traditional concrete industry. Maintenance cost savings, more durable and resistant; Enrichment of marine systems, reduction of noise pollution in the port by up to 50%, acts as a carbon sink (each square meter of ECOncrete infrastructure absorbs around 120g of carbon annually); The underwater observatory “NAUTILUS”, launched in March 2023, has already attracted more than 30,000 visitors.
- More information: LIVING PORTS Website
Blue Skills and Ocean Literacy: seaThings - seaThings is a project that relies on a multi-disciplinary team to promote the literacy about marine environment by fostering the participation of researchers, teachers and science promoters to create learning objects and to add them to a web learning object repository (LOR).Using Artificial Intelligence, technology tools supporting the search, the creation and the management of LORs, extending the life-cycle of the repository
- Achieved Results: Building and making available the learning repositor re-mar.uac.pt; Nine dozen learning objects, verified both in their content and pedagogically, for introducing the theme of the sea in any classroom and teaching level; The digital and physical book, translated into 3 languages, winner of the 2022 prize from the House of Science and currently on the list of the National Reading Plan “Mostra-me o Mar!”
Marine Renewable Energy: H2 OPS Punta Salinas - The project is a pilot test of the use of renewable energy, through a hydrogen fuel cell, to supply electricity to ships during its stay in port. Specifically, it has been designed to supply 80 kW of electricity to the Punta Salinas maritime rescue ship
- Achieved Results: The project utilizes a hydrogen fuel cell system to generate electricity for the vessel during its stay in port, providing a clean and sustainable alternative to traditional power sources; The use of a portable fuel cell allows the supply of clean electrical energy at any point on the dock without the need for expensive electrical infrastructure on land; The project's best practice lies in successfully demonstrating the feasibility and functionality of a hydrogen-powered genset for providing clean and sustainable energy supply to maritime vessels
Healthy Oceans and Resilient Coasts: BlueMissionAA & MAELSTROM
- The EU-funded BlueMissionAA will be the coordination hub that will support the implementation of the Mission in the Atlantic and Arctic basins. It will focus on the restoration of marine and coastal ecosystems and increased climate resilience. The project will mobilise a wide community of stakeholders and empower EU citizens to engage in preservation and restoration. It will also design a monitoring framework to assess progress. Six case studies will be selected across a range of restoration approaches, like active restoration and sustainable harvesting.
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The global marine plastic litter challenge comprises an estimated stock of 83 million tonnes of plastic waste accumulated in oceans. The recovery of plastic materials already in the ocean is an arduous and costly task. MAELSTROM project designs, manufactures and integrates scalable, replicable and automated technologies co-powered with renewable energy and second-generation fuel, to identify, remove, sort and transform all types of collected marine litter into valuable raw materials.
International Cooperation: ASTRAL - The overall objective of ASTRAL is to develop new, sustainable, profitable and resilient value chains for integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) production within the framework of existing, emerging and potential Atlantic markets.
- Achieved Results: Creation of the Atlantic Aquaculture Network to engage stakeholders from research institutes, aquaculture SMEs/industry, public administration, policymakers, as well as end user organisations such as fish farms, seafood producers, using the Aquaculture Helix platform; Seven High-Level meetings have been organised or co-organised by ASTRAL, involving European counties, Brazil, South Africa and US to promote international cooperation across the Atlantic area; Several activities on awareness, ocean literacy and training: schools' campaign, educational material, communities' awareness, summer/winter schools, training courses, training videos, women empowerment and gender mainstreaming in aquaculture
- More information: ASTRAL Website