2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable
Summary: The U.S. has much to share and much to gain by enhancing its international outreach, which is important to advance Federal ocean science and technology priorities but also the broader U.S. Blue Economy and vibrant, private BlueTech sector. This is particularly true with Europe, which has benefited from major ocean related organizational and funding efforts by the European Commission and the DGs over the last 15 years to promote EU collaboration across fields including financing, policy, research, technology and workforce development. Too often U.S. companies and institutions cannot participate in well-conceived and funded EU programs because the U.S. does not belong or offer match funding opportunities. Programs and organizations like Horizon Europe, Mission Starfish (now Mission "Restore our Ocean & Waters by 2030"), the AIR Centre, the Eureka Network, Blue Carbon, Blue Education initiatives and others are beyond the reach of U.S. companies and researchers. Ocean and climate related issues are global in scope and the only way to address them is to take an active international, participatory approach - particularly important for developing countries - that includes the Triple Helix (academia/education, industry and government/policy makers). BlueTech clusters and other connective organizations in Europe are supported to promote this kind of Triple Helix collaboration (see, for example, the very active, EU-backed European Cluster Collaboration Platform). It would be good to see the U.S. take such a holistic approach to promote a sustainable Blue Economy while advancing Federal ocean science and technology priorities.
Sector: Industry, Academia
Organization: TMA BlueTech
POC: Michael Jones, mbjones@tmabluetech.org