Promoting small scale fisheries and aquaculture transnational networking in Adriatic-Ionian macroregion PLUS
The ARIEL project led to significant milestones towards innovation speed-up and uptake in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture sectors, outlining trajectories of development for future cooperation initiatives. However, a further step is needed to consolidate and widen ARIEL results, and operationalize the ARIEL tools. In this content, ARIEL PLUS main objective is to maximize the transferability and durability of the ARIEL project main outcomes towards small-scale fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders within and beyond the Adriatic and Ionian area, leveraging future initiatives and investments for smart and sustainable blue growth of coastal communities. The project intends to make the best use of the ARIEL approach, tactics and tools developed in 3 years of joint implementation, capitalizing and widening the ARIEL knowledge network and the cooperation put in place between local/regional/national public authorities, research bodies, small-scale fisheries and aquaculture socio-economic operators . Built on a deep understanding of these two sectors challenges at regional and ADRION level as well as on a set of policy and technical recommendations delivered in the previous project, ARIEL PLUS is expected to:
- boost the transnational dimension of ARIEL results and knowledge by means of raising awareness activities and events for beneficiaries and stakeholders of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture sectors at local and Country level;
- give its transnational contribution to leverage future initiatives and investments on fisheries and aquaculture sectors by capacity building of potential beneficiaries and by supporting co-creation processes for the application, designing and managment  EU project proposals;
- widen the ARIEL innovation community tpwards new members and new cooperation opportunities;
- improve the operability of the existing ARIEL Platform, conceived as virtual place where small-scale fisheries and aquaculture actors can meet, exchange knowledge and cooperate.
To these, ARIEL PLUS will focus on the following ARIEL milestones:the ARIEL knowledge network;the ARIEL policy and technical recommendations paper;the ARIEL Chart of innovative services;the ARIEL Platform.A balanced partnership of 6 organizations from Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece, already involved in the ARIEL project, renewed their cooperation commitment for implementing ARIEL PLUS.