PHAROS aims to be the stepping stone bridging the two phases set by the EU in their Implementation Plan for the Ocean Mission to protect and restore the marine ecosystem and biodiversity. To achieve this, the PHAROS consortium has set seven objectives. The first objective will be to engage in citizen and other stakeholder engagement, co-creation and citizen science for community-led biodiversity solutions. To achieve this PHAROS will establish Living Labs and develop stakeholder engagement tools and guidelines. The second objective will demonstrate the relevant innovative nature-based solution for ecosystem restoration in multiple demo sites in the Atlantic and the Arctic (Mission phases 1 and 2) to boost coastal resilience through restored and resilient coastal ecosystems. This will be achieved by deploying four demos, of which two are in Gran Canaria, one in Ireland and one in Iceland. The third objective aims to extend to large areas of the Atlantic, EU AOM islands and Arctic, the BLUE4ALL project Marine Protected Area (MPA) Blueprint platform and network for successful co-management of MPA issues, including identification, categorisation, adaptive management practices, governance and corridor integration. Therefore, PHAROS will add innovations to the Blueprint platform for collective action and the set up of ecological corridors. The fourth objective has the aim to fundamentally change perception of roles by implementing fisher and citizen Guardians and Cleaners of the sea programs to address ocean pollution (Mission Phase 1 and 2). Therefore, PHAROS will enhance and roll out the fisher guardian (from NETTAGplus project) program and citizen litter entrepreneur (from REMEDIES project) program. PHAROS will develop both programs to become end-to-end circular economy solutions. With the fifth objective PHAROS will assist local entrepreneurs and SMEs co-create multiple demo based NBS business plans, host investor brokerage events, and for Associated Regions co-created replication roadmaps with systematic biodiversity and ecosystem restoration solutions for the AA basin and beyond, based on project results with innovative business models and sophisticated modelling (Mission phase 1 and 2). This will be done by sharing knowledge and data and by the creation of tools and guidelines. The sixth objective has the aim to extend the Network of Blue Schools to the AA basin to improve ocean literacy across school communities and support citizen science (Mission phase 1 and 2). Therefore, PHAROS will team with Mission project PROBLEU to ensure that the next generation continues the EU Mission objectives, increase awareness and involvement in ocean biodiversity and ecosystem restoration, and optimally employment in the Blue Economy. The last objective has the aim to provide active support to the EU data transfer object (DTO) by building a local DTO of two regions in Gran Canaria and Iceland, and by making the PHAROS project output interoperable with the EU DTO (Mission enabler phase 1 and 2). This will be achieved by real-time data monitoring at the demo sites.

BMRS’ Role

BMRS will deploy the third demo located in Ireland. This demo consists of a kelp farm cultivating winged (Alaria esculenta) and sugar (Saccharina lattisima) kelp. In this demo the effect of a salmon farm, located near the seaweed farm, on the growth of the kelp will be monitored and compared to a control side. The effect of the seaweed form on the biodiversity at the demo site will also be monitored.