BlueActionAA at the European Ocean Days 2026: Community, Governance, and Impact

Project Description

The European Ocean Days 2026, held from 2 to 6 March in Brussels, brought together the ocean science, policy, and innovation communities to shape the future of Europe’s ocean agenda. For BlueActionAA, the event was an important moment of visibility and collaboration, with project representatives actively contributing to sessions on community empowerment, governance, and mission monitoring, while also seizing the opportunity to hold a hybrid General Assembly to align on updates, progress, and next steps.

On 4 March, Niall McDonough, Project Coordinator from the Marine Institute, represented BlueActionAA at the session Together for Change: A Coalition to Empower Communities for Mission Ocean and Waters. Co-organised by CO-WATERS, the session brought together all four Lighthouse Sister Projects (BlueActionAA, BlueActionBANOS, TASC-RestoreMed, and SoS2LearnDBS) to share insights and chart the path forward for community-led Mission implementation.

The session was structured around three key components: the EU vision for oceans and waters; the current status and learnings from ongoing and past activities; and the future outlook for scaling up community-led action. A highlight was the introduction of the Coalition of waterfront cities, ports, regions, and islands as a driving force for Mission implementation — a growing community committed to advancing the goals of Mission Ocean and Waters.

On 5 March, BlueActionAA was also present on the exhibition floor, sharing a booth with sister projects A-AAGORA and CLIMAREST. The booth featured a dedicated poster on BlueActionAA’s cascade funding scheme, highlighting the opportunities available for Community-Led Action and Transition Agenda projects, and offering a hands-on opportunity to engage directly with attendees and raise awareness of the project’s funding pathways for ocean communities across the Atlantic-Arctic basin.

On 6 March, Valerie de Liedekerke (AIR Centre) presented BlueActionAA’s work in the workshop From Actions to Impact: Tracking the Mission’s Progress, dedicated to monitoring and impact assessment. She presented on the monitoring actions undertaken under the community-led actions, coordinating with sister projects BlueActionBANOS, SoS2LearnDBS, and TASC-RestoreMed.

The workshop brought together coordinators of ongoing Mission Ocean Horizon Europe projects alongside the European Commission’s Mission Secretariat, the European Environment Agency (EEA), ICES, and CINEA. Its aim was to co-design a cross-basin monitoring framework and shape the trajectory of the Mission’s deployment phase through to 2030, ensuring that actions on the ground translate into measurable, lasting impact.

Beyond the public sessions, the European Ocean Days also provided a valuable opportunity for the BlueActionAA consortium to convene in a hybrid General Assembly to discuss progress, align on key updates, and define next steps and activities as the project advances towards its conclusion.