Project name: Scalable full cycle of marine waste remediation in the Mediterranean: robotic and participatory solutions
Acronym: SeaClear 2.0
Program: HORIZON EUROPE
Lead partner: Delft University of Technology (Netherlands)
Project partners: Regional Agency DUNEA (Croatia), Fraunhofer (Germany), Hamburg Port Authority (Germany), Isotech (Cyprus), M.Danchor (Israel), Subsea Tech (France), Técnicas y Obras Subacuáticas (TECNOSUB) (Spain) , Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany), University of Dubrovnik (Croatia), Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania), Veolia (France) and Venice Lagoon Plastic Free (Italy)
Project duration: 01/01/2023 – 31/12/2026
Project budget: €9,086,305.00
DUNEA's budget: €215,775.00
Project description:
SeaClear2.0 is a continuation of the SeaClear project, and the goal is to develop a holistic approach to address the entire cycle of marine litter, in line with the Mission to restore, protect and preserve the health of our oceans, seas and waters by 2030. To this end, SeaClear 2.0 aims to prevent and reduce pollution waste in the sea, especially plastics and microplastics, in the Mediterranean area.
The SeaClear2.0 approach ranges from the reduction of upstream and coastal litter through raising public awareness and citizen activation, through effective waste monitoring using a combination of robotic mapping and citizen activation through a gamified application, to direct collection of waste from the sea, more precisely - at least 57% of existing waste on areas covered by robot teams, with opportunities for valorization.
The unique quality of SeaClear2.0 is an interdisciplinary mix of technological innovation, community activation and legislative input, which will be achieved through the consortium's expertise in public engagement, policy making, robotic perception and control, artificial intelligence, maritime technology and operations, and waste sorting and recycling. The new, improved system will be demonstrated in three basic pilot areas: Marseille, Tarragona and Dubrovnik (exact locations will be defined according to the results of current research and expert proposals). Additional pilot areas refer to Ashdod, Venice and Hamburg and additional five external pilot areas located outside the project consortium.
The partner consortium consists of 13 partners from 9 countries, with a combination of expertise in public engagement, policy making, robotic perception and control, artificial intelligence, marine and diving technology and operations, and waste sorting and recycling.
Regional agency DUNEA and the University of Dubrovnik (UNIDU) are the only Croatian partners. In the partner consortium, Regional agency DUNEA contributes the most in the role of regional coordinator for the area of Dubrovnik-Neretva County, but also through experience and knowledge in activities to raise the level of awareness about the problem of waste in the sea, which continues through previously implemented projects.
The University of Dubrovnik, through an interdisciplinary approach, in addition to the important technological input of the Department of Informatics and Computing, i.e. the LARIAT laboratory, also contributes to the project through the biological insights of the Department of Applied Ecology, in order to ensure that the robot system does not in any way endanger plant and animal life in the marine environment. The Department of Economics and Business Economics is also involved in the project, which contributes to the project through inputs related to assessments of the potential of such an innovative system.
SeaClear2.0 is financed from the European Union HORIZON EUROPE program with a total project budget of €9,086,305.00, of which €7,971,863.50 is financed by the EU. For the Dubrovnik-Neretva county, EU co-financing comes in the amount of one hundred percent.
