MEDiverSEAty

In quest of the human dimensions of MEDiterranean Marine Biodiversity

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Our team: training group

Training Group

The Training Group includes a member per each academic and non-academic partner and coordinates training activities and programs in close interaction with the PhD Supervisors Group to ensure the quality of individual training paths according to each candidate needs.

MEDiverSEAty training will enhance the “blue generation” skills and competences and boost its employability in relevant sectors: fisheries, maritime spatial planning, sustainable tourism, MPA management, education etc.

AllBeneficiariesAssociated Partners
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Roberto Casati

University of Malta

Stefano Moncada

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Ana Ruiz-Frau

University of Montenegro

Zdravko Ikica

JPMD

Mirjana Knezevic

TBA21

Michal Kucerak

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn | Sicily Marine Centre, Palermo

Maria Cristina Mangano

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Lluís Gómez-Pujol

Heritage Parks Federation

Darren Saliba

WorldRise

Chiara Silvestrini

Marilles Foundation

Raquel Vaquer-Sunyer

University of the Aegean

George Tsirtsis

Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest

Nikolaos Zouros

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Roberto Casati

Senior Researcher of CNRS, Professor at EHESS, director of the Jean Nicod Institute of ENS/EHESS in Paris, one of the leading research centres in cognitive science, works currently on navigation and on representations of marine environments. 
He is the author of 120 research papers and book chapters on perception, spatial representation and the use of maps and images, as well as of ten books, some of which have been translated in many languages. His seminal work on Digital Colonialism has spurred a large debate on the use of technology in schools. An avid sailor, his latest achievement is a transatlantic crossing on Albatros, a Challenge 67 monohull, as a crew member and on board researcher. Albatros was 2nd in the Cruising B class of the 2019 ARC, after 17 days in the trade winds. The Cognitive Life of Maps will be published by MIT Press (2024). He is the editor of the collection The Sailing Mind (Springer, 2022) and the author of La philosophie de l’océan (Presses Universitaires de France (2022).

University of Malta

Stefano Moncada

Ph.D. in Economics, Stefano lectures and conducts research in the areas of development economics, climate-change and islands and small states studies, with a focus on small island developing states. In 2022 Stefano won Malta’s Research Excellence Award focusing on small islands’ climate and health preparedness. 

Stefano is the Director of the Islands and Small States Institute, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Small States Health Systems and Policies, senior lecturer of the University of Malta, Coordinating Lead Author for the Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change (MedECC), and acts as expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Ana Ruiz-Frau

Interdisciplinary researcher specialising in the intersection of social sciences and ecology, with a focus on human-marine relationships, Ana earned her PhD from Bangor University, UK, where she explored integrating diverse values for coastal management. She has contributed to the Welsh Government’s policies, participated in several EU projects on marine ecosystem services, climate change, nature based solutions and marine spatial planning. She co-chairs international working groups within the Ecosystem Services Partnership. She is currently participating in the SMILES EU COST Action, aiming at enhancing ecosystem resilience and sustainability on islands.

Through her research on marine and coastal social-ecological systems. Ana seeks to understand societal interactions with the marine environment, she approaches this through the lenses of ecosystem service and nature contributions to people frameworks, prioritising the assessment of diverse values, perceptions, and social views. Her goal is to integrate these insights into management practices to promote sustainability.

University of Montenegro

Zdravko Ikica

Zdravko Ikica is a Senior Research Assistant at the Institue of Marine Bilogy, University of Montenegro. He works in demersal fisheries and is a member of the scientific staff in Aquarium Boka, the first public aquarium in Montenegro.

He is a member of several working groups of international organisations, including the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and the FAO AdriaMed regional project. He is also the author and co-author of chapters international and national monographs, scientific journals, and conference proceedings. He is a member of the research team for several international projects across various programmes (Interreg, Horizon2020).

JPMD

Mirjana Knezevic

Mirjana graduated tourism on the Faculty of Geography – University of Belgrade. She works as officer in Department for nature protection and sustainable development, in Public enterprise for coastal zone management of Montenegro.

TBA21

Michal Kucerak

Michal Kučerák is a researcher, lecturer, and curator with a particular emphasis on art mediation and digital projects. He collaborates with a contemporary art foundation TBA21, where he contributes to their digital team, specializing in digital research and projects, specifically Ocean-Archive.org and Organismo (TBA21–Academy).

He takes part within the collective that co-organizes a festival of socially engaged design and artistic practices, Uroboros. Additionally, he is pursuing his PhD studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Technology in Brno.

Michal initiated a research exhibition project #DATAMAZE (DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague, 2018-2022), which revolved around topics of digital and data literacy and was focused on educational activities and strengthening of our digital resilience. He is based in his studio at Petrohradská kolektiv in Prague (CZ).

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn | Sicily Marine Centre, Palermo

Maria Cristina Mangano

Marine ecologist strongly interested and oriented on the study of ecological responses, with the final aim to understand the effects of drivers of change – both natural and human – on the ecosystems, as for example the exploitation of marine resources (e.g. fisheries and aquaculture) specifically under a context of global change (e.g. climate change). Maria Cristina is mostly fascinated by the study of drivers driven patterns (measured at both species level – biological traits – and community level – taxonomic and functional diversity) focusing on the disentangling of mechanisms and processes of propagation along the ecological hierarchy. Her final interest is to develop sustainable solutions to inform a proactive, adaptive and dynamic management based on the Integrated Ecosystem Approach (IEA) and on scientific evidence (evidence-based management).

To inform evidence-based management and conservation measures she mostly deploys synthesis tools (e.g. systematic review) to produce knowledge baselines, crucial to build a solid, salient and rigorous dialogue among stakeholders, the so-called “science-stakeholder-policy nexus”. She believes in the importance of engaging with stakeholders on the management of marine resources (bottom-up approach) as the first step to keep it effective and to understand the socio-ecological systems (recently approached through specific data collection and analysis tools, both quantitative and qualitative). She is chair of the WGCOMEDA at ICES, PI and coPI of several national and international projects.

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Lluís Gómez-Pujol

Coastal geomorphologist –BSc (UIB, 1998) and PhD (UIB, 2006)– with major interests in coastal biogeomorphology and ecology, and sedimentology and Quaternary studies. Lluís is currently Reader of External Geodynamics at the University of Balearic Islands. His D. Phil. Thesis focused on rocky coast ecology and the role of organisms in weathering and erosion in limestone rocky coasts. After completing his PhD he undertook post-doctoral research on beach morphodynamics and sedimentology, at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB).

From 2011 to 2017 he was the leader of the Beach Monitoring Facility at the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB, MINECO-CAIB). Dr. Gómez-Pujol has been member of the scientific committee of the 12th and 14th International Coastal Symposium (CERF) and he was part of the Local Committee of the 2023 ASLO meeting celebrated in Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain); since 2014 was member he belongs to the International Advisory Editorial Board from the Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (Wiley) one of the most recognized journals in his area. Since November 2017 he is chairing the Rock Coast Working Research Group from the International Association of Geomorphologists. Since 2022 he is the PhD coordinator of the Marine Ecology Programme at the University of the Balearic Islands.

Heritage Parks Federation

Darren Saliba

Conservation Officer of Majjistral Park and CEO of The Heritage Parks Federation. A geography graduate with interests in physical geography and geomorphology. Darren is the person in charge of the Heritage Parks Federation, an NGO whose remit is to advocate for nature conservation and the management of protected areas on the Maltese Islands. He has also been appointed to the Majjistral Park Management Board as secretary. As conservation officer Darren was in charge of several environmental restoration projects on sensitive habitats. One of the most recent projects is the restoration and rehabilitation of sand dunes (2110) through the removal of alien plant species and planting of site specific plants. Other projects done include the “MEET” project which was about sustainable tourism within the Mediterranean region and “Tourismo”, a project to valorise protected areas in relation to the flow of tourism.

WorldRise

Chiara Silvestrini

Graduate in International relations with multiple years of experience in managing environmental and humanitarian volunteer projects in Asia and the Pacific area, wildlife protection projects in Central America and teaching projects in Africa. 

Background focused on ocean governance, sustainable policies,  law of the sea and political philosophy. Currently  working as Operations Manager at Worldrise ETS, managing  admin and finance for the organisation as well as the Posidonia Restoration project and the unique SEATY- Local Marine and Education Conservation Areas- project, with on field activities  in Sardinia and Sicily.

Marilles Foundation

Raquel Vaquer-Sunyer

PhD in Marine Sciences at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB, Spain) in the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Research (IMEDEA, Spain) under the supervision of Dr. Carlos Duarte. At present Raquel is coordinator for the Balearic Sea State Report at the Marilles foundation, a collaborative project aimed to provide the most updated information in order to ensure a science-based management of coastal areas that warrant its conservation. Previously postdoctoral fellow (Juan de la Cierva – Incorporación) at the Department of Global Change Research (IMEDEA, Spain) 2017-2019, postdoctoral fellow (Juan de la Cierva-Formación) at the University of the Balearic Islands (2014-2016), and researcher at Lund University (Sweden) collaborating with Dr. Daniel J. Conley (2012-2014), Raquel has been awarded numerous awards and competitive fellowships, including a Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship (IEF, 2012-2014). 

She has participated in several research projects related to marine ecology and biogeochemistry and to effects of global change on the marine environment (in 3 as PI), in different coastal campaigns around the Balearic Islands and Cyprus, and in 6 international oceanographic cruises in waters of the Mediterranean Sea, the Pacific, the Arctic, and the Southern Oceans. She has published 24 papers in SCI journals and in some of the most influential journals including PNAS, Global Change Biology (GCB), Environmental Science & Technology (ES&T) or Limnology and Oceanography (L&O).

University of the Aegean

George Tsirtsis

George Tsirtsis is a Professor in Dynamics of Marine Ecosystems at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of the Aegean. He was the Director of the Franco-Hellenic M.Sc. on Biodiversity Conservation (BIODIV) from 2007 to 2014, offered by the School of the Environment, University of the Aegean, and the Faculty of Sciences, University Montpellier 2 and Dean of the School of the Environment from 2018 to 2020.

He is teaching a number of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on Coastal Ecology, Modelling and Dynamics of marine ecosystems. His research activities focus on coastal ecology and biodiversity issues and integrated coastal zone management. He has a long experience in EU and nationally funded research projects and he has published over 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest

Nikolaos Zouros

Professor at the Department of Geography at the Aegean University, Greece. Nikolaos is Director of the Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest. He is responsible for research activities and excavations in the Lesvos Petrified Forest protected natural monument, the works and the management of the Lesvos Island UNESCO Global Geopark since 2000. He is UNESCO Advisor on Geoparks and member of the Global Geoparks Bureau since 2005. Since 2014 he has been elected President of the Global Geoparks Network. He is author of more than 100 scientific articles in international journals and conferences proceedings and 20 books on Geoparks, Geo-conservation and Geo-tourism.

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  • CONTACT AND INFORMATION


    • MEDiverSEAty is the legacy of a long-term collaboration among the partners tackling a fundamental node for marine sciences: the reconceptualization of the Ocean as a driver to foster sustainable behaviours and policies.
      The scientific research objectives of MEDiverSEAty are to develop a common theoretical framework of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity Conservation which integrates human and biological dimensions and implications, to foster the crucial role of human dimensions in the protection and conservation of Marine Biodiversity and to make Biodiversity the focus of Mediterranean Ocean Literacy. MEDiverSEAty seeks to advance the international discourse by translating this multifaceted perspective into concrete actions, policies and strategies. MEDiverSEAty brings the cultural, social and political dimensions of marine biodiversity to the centre of two key objects of local, national and regional policies across the Mediterranean Basin as of the UNESCO Decade, namely:

      1. Ocean Literacy.Biodiversity
      2. Conservation.

      Ocean Literacy is about a deepened understanding of the ocean’s influence on us and our influence on the ocean. It gathers education, communication and civic engagement strategies. In order to be transferred into factual and transformative actions on the territories, it must focus on precise objects.
      Too often Biodiversity Conservation does not directly involve citizens (and consequently social, cultural, and attitudinal differences), risking being ineffective (“on paper” only), misleading, short-lived, and generating conflicts with marine users and stakeholders (tourists, fishers, developers).

      Due to this background, the scientific research objectives (RO) of MEDiverSEAty are:

      • RO1: To develop a common theoretical framework (lexicon, concepts and interoperable notions) of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity Conservation which integrate human and biological dimensions and implications (WP1).
      • RO2: To foster the crucial role of human dimensions in the protection and conservation of Marine Biodiversity (WP2.
      • RO3: To make Biodiversity the focus of Mediterranean Ocean Literacy (WP3).
      • RO4: The MEDiverSEAty community is expected to have a long-term positive impact on national and EU planning and implementation of governance strategies for the sustainable management of marine resources. (WP2) and the engagement of relevant stakeholders (WP4 and WP5).

    • MEDiverSEAty is a European Doctoral Network investigating the human dimensions of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity. Despite ongoing efforts to conserve Mediterranean biodiversity, there remains a pressing need for more effective implementation of existing conservation measures. MEDiverSEAty proposes integrating the human dimension into biodiversity studies and conservation strategies to address this challenge. Recognizing the significant scientific and social relevance of these dimensions, the project emphasizes areas such as marine citizen science, maritime spatial planning, marine heritage, and the economic values of marine biodiversity.

      MEDiverSEAty seeks to advance the international discourse by translating this multifaceted perspective into concrete actions, policies and strategies. A critical observation is the absence or oversimplification of ‘diversity’ (in terms of cultures, roles, societies, attitudes, identities) as a crucial factor influencing Europeans’ relationship with marine biodiversity in current political and scientific discussions.

      To bridge these gaps, MEDiverSEAty is launching a Doctoral Network Training and Research Program. This program, involving partners from six European countries (Italy, Malta, France, Spain, Montenegro and Greece), focuses on two pillars essential to contemporary marine sciences, policies, and education: Ocean Literacy and Marine Biodiversity Conservation.