The EU Young Ocean Advocates are members of the Youth4Ocean Forum, who have been recognised by the Directorate General of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs (DG MARE) of the European Commission for their outstanding and innovative work that contributes to improving the health of the world ocean and the well-being of coastal communities.
Young people between 16 and 30 years old can submit their projects and apply for accreditation as Young Ocean Advocate at any time.
The Youth4Ocean Forum is currently looking for engaging activities, from street surveys, art shows, or workshops to public debates and awareness-raising events and activities for young Europeans or other audiences.If your project is successful, you will be accredited as Young Ocean Advocate and you will receive support to carry out your project, as well as a range of other benefits to help you with your future projects for the ocean.
Project categories
Your projects can take many forms and relate to various domains:
- Ocean conservation;
- Business, technology and Blue Economy related to sustainable use of marine resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of marine ecosystems;
- Reponsible research and innovation to solve marine and societal challenges;
- Community engagement through work with local communities to solve local marine and social challenges and with social acceptance potential;
- Culture and arts: work or artistic expression relating to the ocean - visual arts (drawing, painting, photography, filmmaking, sculpting, etc.), literature (fiction, drama, poetry) and performing arts (dance, music, theatre), education and sports.
... and to many sectors:
marine biology and biodiversity, marine education and ocean literacy, marine science communication, Marine Protected Areas, Maritime Spatial Planning, fishing and aquaculture, marine biotechnologies, maritime transport, marine extraction, deep-sea mining, marine pollution, offshore wind and ocean enegy, climate change adaptation and resilience, high seas and Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, coastal tourism, water sports, water quality and many others.
Advantages of the EU Young Ocean Advocate
As a Young Ocean Advocate you will have access to exclusive benefits and resources to make a positive change for the ocean:
- Your project will be presented publicly in the Youth4Ocean Forum section on the Maritime Forum website of the European Commission and promoted on social media by the EU4Ocean Coalition;
- Your personal profile will be shown publicly on the Youth4Ocecan Forum website of the European Commission;
- You will benefit from the coaching/mentoring programme of the EU4Ocean Coalition to develop your projects;
- You will be invited to participate in the EU4Oceanevents on an equal footing with the EU4Ocean Coalition other members and to make pitch presentations in front of a broad audience ;
- You will get access to tools and networks to promote ocean literacy in Europe.
Duties of the EU Young Ocean Advocate
Young Ocean Advocates will be active in the Youth4Ocean Forum and in particular they will:
- Continue to develop and carry out their project(s);
- Promote the Youth4Ocean Forum and ocean literacy actively;
- Mobilise their network to expand the Youth4Ocean Forum outreach, bring in new members, including the youth from beyond the marine sectors and from all social groups;
- Participate in and contribute to the Youth4Ocean Forum committees, meetings, activities of education, outreach and advocacy, and the coaching and mentoring programme;
- Contribute to the strategic development of the Youth4Ocean Forum;
- Help the EU4Ocean Coalition to organise events at the sea basin scale and the final EU4Ocean summit;
- Contribute to other ocean literacy initiatives of the EU4Ocean Coalition by collaborating with members of the EU4Ocean Platform and of the European Network of Blue Schools;
- Be ambassadors of the Youth4Ocean Forum and of initiatives supporting the sustainable use of the ocean.
Project submission
If you would like to become an EU Young Ocean Advocate, you need to fill out the online form to submit your application. Your project can be just an idea or an activity which is already in progress!
Submit your project to become an EU Young Ocean Advocate
Application form guidelines
The guidelines will help you understand what we want to see in your application form, and answer many questions that you may have.
'Meet a Blue Expert' webinars
Watch our Webinar series on YouTube to learn how to get the most out of your Youth4Ocean project!
Meet a Blue Expert YouTube playlist
Directory of online resources
There’s plenty of existing resources online to help you to develop your Youth4Ocean projects. Data, reports, free to use pictures… Discover this selection to help you to start your project on solid basis.
View our directory of online resources
Contact
If you have problems with the application form or if you have any additional questions, please contact us at youth4ocean
nausicaa [dot] fr (subject: EU%20Young%20Ocean%20Advocate%20Application%20Issue) (youth4ocean[at]nausicaa[dot]fr)
There will be several calls for project submission throughout the year, so stay tuned!