EMB Secretariat at the European Maritime Day

EMB Executive Director, Sheila Heymans, and Science Officer, Ángel Muñiz Piniella, represented EMB at the European Maritime Day in Brest, France (24-25 May 2023), the annual two-day event during which Europe’s maritime community meet to network, discuss and outline joint action on maritime affairs and sustainable blue economy.

The European Maritime Day (EMD) is the place where ‘Ocean Leaders Meet’. It provides an engaging and interactive experience to discuss the current state of play on a broad range of issues concerning the blue economy and the marine environment as well as ways of moving forward. It features a large number of speakers, thematic sessions, stakeholder workshops and pitch sessions organised by stakeholders and the European Commission. 

EMB Secretariat members Sheila Heymans (Executive Director) and Ángel Muñiz Piniella (Science Officer) represented EMB at the 2023 EMD edition in Brest, France, through an exhibition stand, where our most recent documents and upcoming activities and events were showcased, and through various talks and events, including:

  • Presenting EMB's work at the pitch session "Blue skills for youth: developing transgenerational Ocean literacy projects" of the FLORES project, organized by the Youth4Ocean Forum (24 May, 12:45-13.15 CEST)
  • Presenting EMB's work at the pitch session "EU4Ocean’s Thematic challenge of the year: developing collective action projects on Ocean Literacy", organized by the EU4Ocean Coalition (25 May, 12:45-13:15 CEST)
  • Co-organising the workshop "Benefiting from Maritime Data to Drive Marine Innovation", under the EOOS Framework banner, together with Technopôle Brest-Iroise, Blue-Cloud 2026, EMODnet, and VesselAI (24 May, 16:15-17:30 CEST).
  • Participating in the panel discussion at the workshop "Marine Ecosystem Services: A decision-making tool" by HAEDES, where Sheila presented the EMB VALMARE document and highlighted the work that EMB is doing in the EcoScope project to ensure that policy makers obtain the decision making tools they need (25 May, 14:30-15:45 CEST)
  • Joining a panel discussion at the European Blue Forum Launch event, where Sheila highlighted the importance of Ocean observations and of co-designing science through transdisciplinarity to answer the question "What do we need from European Seas by 2030? Are we asking too much?" (26 May, 9:00-13:30 CEST)