It's our 3rd Birthday today and what a 3 years it has been! 9 March 2018 was the day the Center for Coastal and Marine Studies (CCMS) was officially established. We have accomplished so much, but the best is yet to come!
We are delighted to say we have made it, we are still here and we are stronger than ever!
CCMS was born with the fundamental goal of developing and promoting science, research, knowledge transfer, and innovation technologies in the Black Sea and in the World Ocean by bringing together science, environment, expertise, stakeholders and policy making.
Our activities comprise a vast range of coastal and marine research (studies and surveys in the field of modern coastal and marine processes), as well as support to implementation of the EU coastal and maritime Strategies and Directives (MSP, ICZM, Blue and Circular Economy, Blue Growth, EU Green Deal, Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea, etc.), by developing scientific basis and providing knowledge and expertise, project participation, networking and consultancy.
CCMS is directly advised by Advisory Committee (AC), which currently involves fifteen distinguished and outstanding scientists and experts from different institutes, universities and organizations all around the globe (Australia, Belgium, Greece, Columbia, Estonia, Italy, Romania, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom and USA). For more information on AC members explore the section for AC on our webpage: http://www.ccms.bg/en/about-ccms/advisory-committee.
We started just three years ago with working on coastal and marine science and research, and we have contributed a lot to several project consortiums for developing large EU project proposals under different programmes and frameworks.
And currently we are partners in the EC`DG MARE MARSPLAN-BS II Project (funded by EMFF) and coordinated by the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works. The project supports the coherent, cross-sectoral Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) in Bulgaria and Romania under the framework of MSP Directive 2014/89/EU towards a long-lasting mechanism for the Black Sea cross-border cooperation on MSP. The CCMS`s role in the project is leading the implementation of activities on integration of Land-Sea Interactions (LSI) into MSP and addressing the Multi Use (MU) concept with MSP, reports on best practices and recommendations for LSI, and a case study on MU in the cross-border region. We have taken active participation at all MARSPLAN-BS II Steering Committee Meetings, Advisory Board Meeting, seminars and thematic workshops, such as the First Advisory Board Meeting & Interdisciplinary Workshop “Blue Synergy” 9-10 July 2020, Burgas, Bulgaria; e-Thematic Workshops on Coastal and Maritime Tourism, Coastal Protection and measures against erosion, etc.
CCMS experts have been involved in developing baseline analysis (diagnostic) and policy recommendations for Integrated Blue Economy Development Framework for Bulgaria in the context of the Common Maritime Agenda for the Black Sea, developed by the World Bank in Bulgaria. A CCMS expert has been also involved as a key ecology expert leading a project team charged with the implementation of the environmental part in the Maritime Spatial Plan of Bulgaria under the coordination of the Bulgarian Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works (Competent MSP Authority) and the National Centre for Regional Development.
Although the disruptive year we have been through due to Covid-19 pandemic, we have participated and undertaken a lot of online outreach activities. This included organization of EGU2020 Geomorphology Session (online format): Coastal Zone Geomorphological Interactions: Natural versus Human-Induced Driving Factors (sponsored by the Commission on Coastal Systems to the International Geographical Union) by CCMS Director Dr. Margarita Stancheva together with our AC members: Dr. Andreas Baas, Prof. Giorgio Anfuso, Dr. Hannes Tonisson and Dr. Guillaume Brunier: https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2020/displays/37494.
And organization of a session convened by the Commission on Coastal Systems (CCS) of the International Geographical Union (IGU), chairing by Prof. Colin Woodrofe and Dr. Margarita Stancheva: "Sustaining Coastal and Marine Environments in the Anthropocene" at the 34th INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHICAL CONGRESS with a theme "Geography: bridging the continents", that will take place on 16-20 August, 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey (https://www.igc2020.org/en/).
And compiling and editing the July 2020 and January 2021 Newsletters of the CCS-IGU by CCMS Director Dr. Margarita Stancheva (CCS Secretary and Newsletter Editor) and CCMS AC member Prof. Norbert Psuty (Newsletter Co-editor, Rutgers University, US).
We took active participation at several online international events, such as the “Sixth MSPglobal online seminar, organized on 6 May 2020 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO), with a theme “How to ensure Ecosystem-Based Approach (EBA) principles in the context of Marine Spatial Planning (MSP)” and the “ESPON PEER LEARNING WORKSHOP: THE ROLE OF MARINE SPATIAL PLANNING IN REDUCING MARINE POLLUTION IN THE BLACK SEA”, conducted virtually on 15 December 2020 and organized by the University of Ghent, Belgium (with a key presentation by Dr. Margarita Stancheva on how the integration of Land-Sea Integrations (LSI) into the MSP can help to reduce marine pollution in the Black Sea (under the MARSPLAN-BS II project).
For more details and information on all our activities, project results and initiatives visit the CCMS website: https://www.ccms.bg/.
Follows us on:
Social media: https://web.facebook.com/ccms.bg/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCMSBG
At the end, in celebrating our third birthday we take the moment to warmly thank all our AC members, colleagues and friends for their courage to join us along the way and for their continuing support and great collaboration during the past three years!
LET`S WISH US A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MANY MORE YEARS OF SUCCESS AHEAD!