Bridge-BS

Between 2021 and 2025, the European project Bridge-BS (H2020) has made it possible to strengthen marine research and innovation capacities in the Black Sea, in order to co-develop sustainable blue economy pathways in the face of multiple pressures on its ecosystems. The project has developed an ecosystem management framework to facilitate the adoption of appropriate public policies and to strengthen citizen engagement.

Among its key results are advances in environmental monitoring, data integration, climate scenario modelling, analysis of ecosystem resilience and their services, smart sensor technologies, and decision support tools for ecosystem management. In co-development with local communities and decision-makers, the project has identified key management measures to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Black Sea blue economy, by 2050 and 2100. The demonstrator Digital Twin Ocean The BRIDGE-BS Data Transfer Object (DTO) integrates a large part of these tools into a virtual representation of the Black Sea, designed to inform decision-making and identify a compatible operational space within ecosystem limits.

The project drew on regional pilot study sites whose results fed into the four pillars of the Black Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (Black Sea SRIA), as well as key policy initiatives at both regional and international levels.

Within this international consortium of 33 partners, SML has driven two complementary workstreams.

• Stimulating blue economy innovation (WP7) – SML designed and managed the Black Sea Accelerator, an acceleration programme aimed at supporting blue economy innovators in consolidating their projects. Around fifteen project leaders were supported over two calls for applications, through training sessions on business models, business plans, pitching, and recruitment challenges. This programme also led to two editions of the High-Tech Summit for the Black Sea, international event bringing together experts, researchers and entrepreneurs on the challenges of sustainable innovation: the First edition was held in Varna in September 2022 (200 participants), the second in Sofia in October 2024 (100 participants).
• Develop a prospective vision for 2050 (WP1) – SML conducted in-depth prospective work on the evolution of the regional blue economy, leading to the co-construction of four scenarios – the Imaginaries for the Sustainable Blue Economy in the Black Sea – exploring different trajectories according to governance, innovation dynamics and socio-environmental conditions. These scenarios, inspired by those developed by the European Environment Agency in 2022, were then debated with local stakeholders to feed into collective thinking on desirable and viable futures for the region.Our results below

SML has also contributed to the setup of The Black Sea blue economy observatory, as well as to the development of data concerning the region's maritime countries and sectors.