MEDiverSEAty. In quest of the human dimensions of MEDiterranean Marine Biodiversity

Sustainable management of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity is a key-priority of EU programs and actions, with the aim of integrating marine diversity protection and human development. Two main gaps need to be filled to achieve this goal: the overall lack of understanding of European citizens’ conceptions and misconception on the sea; the lack or oversimplification, both in political and scientific debate, of “diversity” as a key driver acting on the relationship among European citizens and marine biodiversity. MEDiverSEAty is a transnational project based on several local case studies with the aim of filling these gaps, through the implementation of a Doctoral Network Training and Research Program in 6 European countries (IT, ES, FR, EL, ME, MT), a novelty in the educational and scientific panorama of marine science and biodiversity management. MEDiverSEAty develops an international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral Training Program for 10 PhD Candidates who, in a medium term perspective, will form a community of early career researchers trained in the study of marine biodiversity, via joint research projects in both academic and non-academic settings, with local and network training, open science and complementary skills. The project is based on two key-pillars of contemporary marine sciences, policies and education, with an interdisciplinary approach that tackles the barriers that continue to exist among the biological sciences, the humanities and social sciences, and the study of environmental governance: Ocean Literacy and Marine Biodiversity Conservation. The scientific research objectives of MEDiverSEAty are to develop a common theoretical framework of Mediterranean Marine Biodiversity Conservation which integrates human and biological dimensions and implications, to foster the crucial role of human dimensions in the protection and conservation of Marine Biodiversity and to make Biodiversity the focus of Mediterranean Ocean Literacy.