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Frequently Asked Questions

 

  1. What is Joint Programming?  
  2. Who is involved in the JPI Oceans?  
  3. Why is the JPI Oceans needed?
  4. What is the difference between the JPI Oceans and the ERA net schemes?
  5. What is the difference between the JPI Oceans and regional initiatives like BONUS?
  6. What are the goals and objectives of the JPI Oceans?
  7. What is the history behind the JPI Oceans?
  8. Are there any other Joint Programming Initiatives?

 

What is Joint Programming?


Joint programming is a concept introduced by the European Commission in July 2008 and is one of five initiatives aimed at implementing the European Research Area (ERA). The concept intends to tackle the grand societal challenges that cannot be solved solely on the national level and allows Member States and Associated Countries to participate in those joint initiatives where it seems useful for them.

Objective: To increase the value of relevant national and EU R&D and infrastructure investments by concerted and joint planning, implementation and evaluation of national research programmes.

How: Member States and Associated Countries are expected to coordinate national research activities in the broadest sense, group resources, benefit from complementarities and develop common research and innovation agendas, as a basis for long-term cooperation in order to face grand societal challenges.

More information on the website of the European Commission.
 

Who is involved in the JPI Oceans?


At the moment the following countries are member of the Management Board of JPI Oceans:

JPI Oceans members Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom. The European Commission will be a non-voting member of the Management Board.

JPI Oceans is open to all EU Member States and Associated Countries who invest in marine and maritime research.
 

Why is the JPI Oceans needed?


The seas and oceans provide an essential part of our wealth and well-being. To give an example: The EU’s maritime regions account for around 40% of its GDP and the maritime economy for 3 to 5%. The fast growing global population will increasingly depend from marine food sources (including sustainable aquaculture). Moreover oceans and seas offers a large unexploited potential from underexplored marine biodiversity and marine renewable energy and play a crucial role in developing transport modalities en tourism activities.

But oceans and seas are also under huge pressure from human activities and climate change. The growing vulnerability of coastal areas, increasingly crowded coastal waters, the key role of the oceans in the climate and earth system and the continuous deterioration of the marine environment all call for a stronger focus on our oceans and seas.

This means that there is a strong need for more and better research and monitoring of our seas and oceans. The field of marine and maritime research is very wide and complex. In addition most of the grand societal challenges are cross-cutting in nature, involving different areas of knowledge, disciplines and sectors. Therefore they cannot be solved by research programmes focused on a particular area of knowledge or theme. On the contrary, an integrated and coherent approach at European level is crucial to deliver solutions and to obtain the objective of productive and healthy seas and oceans.
 

What is the difference between the JPI Oceans and the ERA-NET schemes?


With the Joint Programming Initiative Oceans Member States and Associated Countries are expected to coordinate national research activities in the broadest sense. The countries will group resources (including instutitionalised funding), benefit from complementarities and develop common research and innovation agendas, as a basis for long-term cooperation in order to face grand societal challenges.

The objective of the ERA-NET schemes is to develop and strengthen the coordination of national and regional research programmes through two specific actions:

  1. 'ERA-NET actions' - providing a framework for actors implementing public research programmes to coordinate their activities e.g. by developing joint activities or by mutually supporting joint calls for trans-national proposals.'
  2. ERA-NET Plus actions'- providing, in a limited number of cases with high European added value, additional EU financial support to facilitate joint calls for proposals between national and/or regional programmes.


Under the ERA-NET scheme, national and regional authorities identify research programmes they wish to coordinate or open up mutually. The participants in these actions are therefore programme 'owners' (typically ministries or regional authorities defining research programmes) or programme 'managers' (such as research councils or other research funding agencies managing research programmes).

While the ERA-NET schemes are targeted at a fixed period in time, the Joint Programming Initiative on the other hand is not limited within a certain time frame but focused on a longer term perspective. In addition the ERA-NETs focus on the public research programmes while the JPI will focus on the pooling of  institutionalized money (non-competitive money) of the member states. In addition to this the JPI aims to act as a platform to provide policy makers with scientific input.
 

What is the difference between the JPI Oceans and regional initiatives like BONUS?


The Joint programming initiative operates on a European level while BONUS is operating within the Baltic sea area. The JPI will involve regional initiatives like BONUS in its activities.  
 

What are the goals and objectives of the JPI Oceans?


JPI Oceans is a coordination platform open to all EU Member States and Associated Countries who invest in marine and maritime research. While bringing together the interested Member States and Associated Countries the JPI Oceans aims to:

  1. Enable the advent of a knowledge based maritime economy, maximising its value in a sustainable way
  2. Ensure Good Environmental Status of the seas and optimise planning of activities in the marine space
  3. Optimise the response to climate change and mitigate human impacts on the marine environment

The field of marine and maritime research is complex involving different sectors, areas of knowledge and disciplines including socio-economics. In order to reach these goals, challenges should be addressed that are cross-cutting in nature.

The JPI Oceans has therefore identified broad cross thematic areas which need to be addressed as a priority and which lie at the intersections of the marine environment, climate change and marine and human activities. 

 

Areas and examples of interactions, to identify the issues to be tackled and selected by the participating countries. Areas and examples of interactions, to identify the issues to be tackled and selected by the participating countries.

The objectives of the JPI are to:

  • Foster enabling cross-cutting marine technologies across the maritime sectors
  • Foster the marine bio economy in relation to new products, services and jobs
  • Create the best enabling environment to maximise the development of marine renewable energy
  • Develop the necessary knowledge and technologies to conquer the new deep-sea frontier
  • Understand and mitigate impact of climate change and pressure from human activities on the marine environment, to reach GES (Good Environmental Status) of our seas by 2020
  • Improve understanding of marine ecosystems and their processes, in particular delivery of ecosystem services and the impacts of human activities
  • Understand climate change impact on coastal areas and design marine and maritime structures and activities, to optimise mitigation and significantly reduce costly damages
  • Develop and sustain infrastructure to support an integrated data and information base enabling industrial development and supporting maritime governance
  • Develop a research to policy mechanism, in particular to support of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and Marine Spatial Planning and Management
  • Foster the inter-disciplinary human capacities that are necessary to the JPI goals
     

What is the history behind JPI Oceans?


The European Council of March 2008 called on the European Commission and Member States to explore the potential of Joint Programming, asking for joint activities to be launched by 2010.

The Commission made proposals to launch such a process in July 2008 in a Communication entitled Towards Joint Programming in Research: Working together to tackle common challenges more effectively. These proposals were based notably on the results of the public consultation following the Commission Green Paper of April 2007 and on the work of a dedicated expert group mandated by the Commission. The Council of Ministers endorsed these proposals and agreed to launch the process in December 2008.

The first pilot Joint Programming Initiative was adopted by the Council in December 2009 in the area of neurodegenerative diseases. In May 2010 the council identified six themes for the second wave of JPI’s. One of these themes was Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans.

A more extensive history of of the process of coordinating national research programmes can be found here (PDF-613.1 KB)  
 

Are there any other Joint Programming Initiatives?


Yes, the first pilot Joint Programming Initiative was adopted by the Council in December 2009 in the area of neurodegenerative diseases, and in particular Alzheimer's.

In October 2010 the council adopted the launching of the first wave of three JPIs on:

In May 2010 the council identified six more themes (among others Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans) for which the Commission, in cooperation with the Member States, will provide proposals for Council consideration as of 2011:

 

Published:
 30.05.2011