Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy
Photo credit: KaterinaKatopis / Ocean Image Bank
Vision
Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy was launched in March 2022 at the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) to conduct activities at the intersection of research, education and science for policy dialogue as well as citizen engagement in support of healthy seas for our and future generations. Our activities are focussed on the Mediterranean Sea, but with implications and interest also for other regions. Ultimately, the ocean, just as knowledge, is one.
Mission
Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy fosters interactions in the knowledge triangle (academia-policy-society) related to the theme of blue economy, both in how this plays out in the EU, and in its relation with the Mediterranean region. The Centre pools knowledge and competence on the subject of the EU’s blue economy.
The Centre was planned at a time when the need for a transformation of marine and maritime sectors towards sustainable development has never been more urgent, and the EU’s commitment to doing so has never been stronger. In 2021 the EU has, through a Communication, acknowledged the seas and oceans as central to the accomplishment of objectives of the EU’s strategic agenda – European Green Deal. At the same time, a green transition was made one of key pillars of the EU’s strategy vis-a-vis its Mediterranean neighbours.
The 2024 Summer School on “Transformative pathways to sustainability in the Blue Economy in the Mediterranean: learning across emerging tools and technologies” was jointly organised by the Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy (CoE-SUBE) – EMUNI University and the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) in Trieste, Italy.
Photo: Blue Skills initiative – OGS Sustainable Blue Economy
The seal of Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence was awarded to the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI) by the European Commission for a period of 2022-2025 with the support of the Erasmus+ programme, grant number 101048038.
Professor Mounir Ghribi is Director of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy at the Euro-Mediterranean University (EMUNI), Slovenia.
Prof. Ghribi holds a PhD. in methods for monitoring environmental change from the University of Trieste; a Masters in Open Innovation and Knowledge Transfer from the Politecnico di Milano; a MSc in Environmental Management from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Crete; and an Engineering degree from the ESAM School of Engineering, Tunisia.
Prof. Ghribi is Director of International Cooperation and Research Promotion (ICAP) at Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale (OGS) in Trieste, Italy. He is also Director of the Advanced Masters in Sustainable Blue Economy jointly organised by OGS and the University of Trieste as well as the Coordinator for the Blue Skills Project for Developing Skills in the Blue Economy Sector in the Mediterranean, a project labelled by the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) in 2019 and winner of the Best Project Award in 2021. Prof. Ghribi is also Professor of Sustainable Development and Science Diplomacy at EUCLID Intergovernmental University.
A former United Nations Officer, Prof. Ghribi was in charge of capacity building and the fellowship programme at ICS-UNIDO (UN Industrial Development Organisation). He is a member of the UfM advisory board on Mediterranean for Jobs Initiative (Med4Jobs), and represents Italy in various other international initiatives, namely the intergovernmental forum for the Western Mediterranean Forum (5+5 Dialogue) for Research, Innovation and Higher Education, the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, and the internationalisation of the national Blue Italian Growth (BIG) cluster.
Contact
For any questions or enquiries, please contact Diana Rico, Junior Researcher at the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Blue Economy: