The Italy Croatia ECOSS project kicks off

ISMAR is participating in the Interreg Italy-Croatia project “ECOSS - Ecological Observing System in the Adriatic Sea: oceanographic observations for biodiversity”. There are ten partner institutions from Italy and Croatia, collaborating under the leadership of the Italian National Research Council’s Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) towards achieving the main goal of the project: the establishment of the ECOlogical observing system in the Adriatic Sea - ECOAdS.

The ECOAdS will be shared between Italy and Croatia, and is foreseen to integrate ecological and oceanographic research and monitoring with Natura 2000 conservation strategies. To achieve this goal, ECOSS will build upon existing facilities, infrastructure and long-term ecological data to create synergy between marine observation capacities and requirements for achieving and maintaining good conservation status of the marine component of the Natura 2000 sites in the Adriatic Sea.

This project started on 1^st January 2019 and will be conducted over the following 30 months. During the project kick off meeting to be held from 12^th to 14^th March in Venice, participants will discuss about the main project goals and next activities (meetings, workshops, case studies, educational material etc.) through specific working groups. The Italy-Croatia Programme will soon launch a website with more details on activities and options to get involved. The overall value of the project is 3.390.551,05 EUR, of which 85% is financed by the European Union through the CBC Programme Interreg Italy-Croatia.