IASON

Fostering sustainability and uptake of research results through Networking activities in Black Sea and Mediterranean areas

IASON Project has the ultimate goal to establish a permanent and sustainable Network of scientific and non-scientific institutions, stakeholders and private sector enterprises belonging in the EU and third countries located in two significant areas: The Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions. The main focal points of the project will be the usage and application of Earth Observation (EO) in the following topics:

• climate change
• resource efficiency
• raw materials management

IASON aims to build on the experiences gained by 5 FP7 funded projects, OBSERVE, enviroGRIDS, GEONETCab, EGIDA, and BalkanGEONet. All of the above projects focused on enhancing EO capacities, knowledge and technology in the EU and in neighborhood countries. During their execution time they managed to establish links with a critical mass of research institutions, organizations, public organizations, stakeholders, and policy makers in the Balkan region, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea Basin. IASON intends to create the proper conditions for enhancing knowledge transfer capacity building, and market opportunities in using EO applications and mechanisms in specific research fields that are addressing climate actions resource efficiency and raw materials management.

In order to achieve its goal IASON will engage in

• Visible and effective capacity building and knowledge transfer activities with Third countries research institutes and organizations, stakeholders and policy makers through the organization of two training workshops (one in each region);
• Demonstration of market opportunities through uptake of results from three projects (PEGASO, enviroGRIDS, and IMPACTMIN), best case scenarios and success stories;
• Identification of projects and networks, using the regional partners’ contacts in the Third Countries, along with input from training workshops, and Advisory Board Members in the thematic fields that have potential for future cooperation;
• Liaise and coordinate dissemination activities with other projects dealing with research and innovation cooperation for the Societal Challenge 5 of Horizon 2020;
• Creation of an innovative web based common information platform with information regarding clustering projects that demonstrate synergy potential, networking tools that will enhance communication between interesting parties.

IASON brings together 14 partners, coordinated by the University of Thessalonikis.

The 2-year project runs from June 2013 to May 2015 and has a total budget of about 1.16 mio. EUR (1 mio. EUR EC contribution)

Coordinator: Petros Patias, University of Thessalonikis

Work Package leader: Pierre Lacroix

Project members: Yaniss Guigoz, Gregory Giuliani, Nicolas Ray

Project website: http://iason-fp7.eu