Irish and Celtic Sea hub

Researchers at Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences in collaboration with University College Cork and the Ulster Wildlife Trust contribute to the Mission Ocean & Waters through the following actions:

Organising a series of workshops in Belfast, Anglesey, Cork and Cardiff, plus an event in Brussels, to assess the feasibility of creating an Irish and Celtic Sea hub or ‘Lighthouse’ that would promote the importance of restoring our Ocean & Waters through collaborative activities, partnerships and proposals whilst acting as a platform for the development, demonstration and deployment of innovative solutions in the Irish and Celtic Sea space. Key themes linked each workshop: marine conservation and restoration, sustainable food from the sea, blue economy, and marine renewable energy. Each event provided an opportunity to 1) explore the benefits of collaborative area-based approaches 2) assess support for an Irish and Celtic Sea hub 3) encourage participation from local stakeholders to gain their regional insights on challenges and opportunities within the Irish and Celtic Sea space. A report is being produced to summarise the outputs from the events and various collaborative activities. Future directions and governance are being are being considered, taking a sea basin approach.

The workshop series complements the Welsh Governments Irish Sea Framework which aims to increase economic cooperation across the Irish Sea space and has been supported by the Welsh Government's Agile Cymru and SCoRE programme and the Wales Innovation Network (WIN) and builds on successful INTERREG projects between Ireland and Wales. The key output from the workshops was the formation of a hub to coordinate activity and to align with the EU lighthouse mission and other networks to increase activity within the Blue Economy and restore our oceans for a sustainable and resilient sea basin for future generations.

Located on the Menai Strait, North Wales, UK, Bangor University’s School of Ocean Sciences (SOS) is one of the largest University Marine Science departments in Europe and is committed to restoring our Oceans and Waters. Through our 4 research themes 1) Biodiversity, Conservation and Habitat 2) Ocean and changing climate 3) Sustainable Oceans and 4) Human Oceans we take an applied multi and interdisciplinary approach to research that tackles the challenges facing our Oceans and Waters, provide courses that are relevant, engaging and that contribute to the creation of blue skills for the future generation.

Our Centre for Applied Marine Science (CAMS) works across the Blue Economy and supports the mission Restore our Oceans and Waters by increasing the impact and sustainability of marine research by linking it to real-world applications. CAMS is housed in the Marine Centre Wales building, a unique centre where university researchers and end-users are co-located to promote synergistic benefits and co-development of new initiatives and encourage sustainable economic growth within the Marine Sector, utilising EU structural funds and contributing to wider policy goals e.g. the sustainable development goals, EU mission Restore our Oceans and WatersThe School and the Marine Centre Wales building has excellent support facilities for teaching and research including a Marine Data Centre and the Prince Madog, a state-of-the-art, purpose-built research vessel, a fleet of smaller vessels and a number of specialist laboratories.