On 14th June 2023, we were in Aveiro, Portugal, for the kickoff meeting of the WIN-BIG project with representatives from our 13 partner institutions.
Coordinated by the Department of Environment and Planning and the Center for Studies on the Environment and the Sea at the University of Aveiro, WIN-BIG aims to address the lack of knowledge on the role of women in the Blue Economy sectors and uneven gender representation across the EU regions.
During its three-year implementation, the project will provide accurate and widespread data on the gender status and women's participation in blue careers across the six European sea basins and with a focus on emerging and high-tech areas such as Blue bioeconomy, Ocean renewable energies and Robotics, and Blue sport and sustainable tourism.
Based on the data collected and analysed, model networking and job fair events for women in BuE will be developed to boost women-to-women empowerment and promote cross-border and cross-sectoral sharing of knowledge and best practices.
Last month, WIN-BIG was also officially introduced to Blue Economy's stakeholders and policymakers at the European Maritime Days in Brest, France. During the two-day event, we had the opportunity first to present the project to and meet with attendees at the CINEA's EU booth and participate in two high-level workshops - “Women in the Blue Economy” and "Advancing Gender Equality in the Blue Economy" - with our coordinator Helena Vieira, our sister project WINBLUE and representatives from DG Mare and CINEA.
The role of GEONARDO in WIN-BIG
Geonardo coordinates the dissemination, communication and exploitation activities in the WP5 “Sharing and nurturing”. In the upcoming months, we will develop the Living Gender Database, design the WIN-BIG Blue Book of photos and testimonials of women working in the BuE, as well as develop the MOOCs and e-training, whilst being involved in all other activities to cohesively boost Women in Blue Economy impact. GEO will also make the link with the Black Sea and Baltic Sea partners and support the organisation of local and regional networking events.
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