In this virtual workshop “Shaping the Future of Marine and Maritime Communities” representatives of Cork's marine and maritime communities from across the Quadruple Helix (government, industry / business, academia, and civil society and citizens) were invited to jointly determine the challenges that marine communities face and to identify the potential research and innovation activities that can help address these challenges.
The CityLabs workshop was run with lead partner MaREI - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine research and innovation based in the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) at University College Cork. The Centre comprises over 220 researchers focusing on defined global challenges such as the Energy Transition, Climate Action and the Blue Economy.
This CityLab workshop collaborated with MaREI’s GRRIP Project (Grounding Responsible Research and Innovation Practices), which is focussed on embedding RRI (responsible research and innovation practices) in research organisations in the marine and maritime sector.
The workshop a range of agents, sectors, and organisations, and at multiple levels for co-creating knowledge and innovation. The discussions were based on five wide-ranging topics affecting the marine and maritime sector and associated communities:
1) Marine Environment
2) Marine Energy
3) Food Security
4) Climate Action
5) Blue Economy, Skills, and Jobs.
Fourty five participants attended the workshop - including government and policy implementors (11); Civil Society and / or citizen representatives (13); Higher Educational Institute representatives (12) and Industry/Business representatives (9). During the workshop, participants were divided into breakout groups to explore the five key topics. Each group included a mix of participants from across the quadruple helix.
Through facilitated group work, for each topic, participants:
(a) Identified challenges faced by Marine communities in Cork and region
(b) Considered how we can rise to teh challenge - shaping future research and innovation responses.
