Dates: 29-30 April 2015
Venue: Ghent, Belgium
Host: University of Ghent
During the meeting, the Board approved the membership of the University of Klaipeda. Jan-Stefan Fritz and Mark James were elected as new ExCom members, replacing Ricardo Santos and Jacky Wood.
A new activity on marine citizen science was approved by the board. The participants were also presented with two new publications, a new Policy Brief on Europe’s underwater heritage and a booklet on the value of EMB membership.
Updates were given on the ongoing working group on marine graduate training, and on upcoming events for the 5th EMB Forum and the deep sea Position Paper launch were also discussion.
The open session theme was the changing legal and policy framework for the study and utilization of marine biodiversity – implications for marine research in Europe, and featured the following presentations:
The Nagoya Protocol and EU ABS Regulation and their relevance to marine research, Alicja Kozlowska
Protecting biodiversity in ABNJ through a new UNCLOS Implementing Agreement, John Brincat
Implications for collection and utilization of marine biological samples, Marcel Jaspars
The evening lecture, given by Michael Depledge, was called “Sustaining our seas: How can we identify emerging issues and trends”.
