About
Overview
INSPIRI is a collaborative mission to restore the health of the EU’s ocean and water systems by 2030 and 2050. INSPIRI unites citizens, scientists, policy-makers and artists across four key Lighthouse Regions (Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Sea, Baltic Sea, and Danube Delta), in a transformative journey built on four core actions:
- Co-Creative Visioning: We begin by working hand-in-hand with regional stakeholders to co-design shared visions for sustainable water futures.
- From Vision to Model: These co-created visions are transformed into robust scientific scenarios and models, grounding hopes in data and aligning them with key EU environmental goals.
- Engaging Decision-Makers: In our regional Transformation Labs (T-Labs), we convene decision-makers and policy experts to merge insights with concrete, actionable plans to navigate towards the 2030 and 2050 targets.
- Inspiring Citizens: To make the future of water a shared conversation, we foster broad public engagement through innovative art-science collaborations and an art-science online hub, connecting people to the mission in meaningful and inspiring ways.
Approach
In INSPIRI, our objectives are to:
Policy support
Support the implementation of EU policies by co-designing aspirational and integrated visions and scenarios of sustainable and just futures for ocean and water systems.
Evidence-based decisions
Inform decision-making processes on restoring ocean and water systems with the latest science by testing normative scenarios in different models.
Action & impact
Stimulate action for restored EU ocean and waters.
We follow the steps of:
Baseline understanding of current systems dynamics and scenarios.
Participatory scenario development using Nature Futures Framework.
Regional modelling of business-as-usual and aspirational visions.
Transformation Labs and citizen engagement including art–science collaborations.
Partners
Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper, Slovenia
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Austria
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, France
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, ItalyResearchers involved
Past collaborators: Nina Kos
Advisory Board
Our dedicated Advisory Board members are:
- Jessica Blythe, Associate Professor, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (Brock University)
- Fedra Francocci, Coordinator of the Mediterranean Lighthouse (BlueMissionMed project)
- Françoise Gaill, International Platform for Ocean Sustainability / Ocean Sustainability Foundation
- Verena Höhn, Coordinator of the Danube Lighthouse (EcoDaLLi project)
- Valerie de Liedekerke, Coordinator of the Atlantic Arctic Lighthouse (BlueMissionAA project)
- Angela Schulz-Zehden, Coordinator of the Baltic Sea Lighthouse (BlueMissionBANOS project)
- Joost Vervoort, Associate Professor, Environmental Governance Group, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development (Utrecht University)