The event aims to provide an opportunity to  relevant sectors of the society (science, education, public administrations and industry) to meet and discuss current challenges related to the problematic of microplastic pollution. 

Three working sessions will be organised : an open science seminar, a dissemination conference of the EC funded project "The Pedagogical Sailboat" and a workshop in which the organisers will introduce a new initiative called "Erasmus Maris" aiming to create tangible links between scientific research and education.
OPEN SCIENCE SEMINAR
DISSEMINATION CONFERENCE
 WORKSHOP -ROUND TABLE
Microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems
​The seminar will allow scientists to share pragmatic approaches to tackle the pollution of aquatic ecosystems by microplastics from their monitoring and characterisation to the required actions for societal change.
The European Commission DG JRC will open the seminar presenting their activities related to reference materials and harmonisation .
The coordinators of two recently funded Innovative and training Networks (ITN) on microplastics will present  what they want to achieve  ( Limnoplast and Monplas  were granted a total of 8 million euro).
The Pedagogical Sailboat
​Presentation of the main results of The Pedagogical Sailboat project. The aim of this project is to lay the foundations that can generate  lasting collaboration between three different sectors: scientific research, education and sailing in the frame of the protection of the marine environment.
The Erasmus Maris Initiative
​The aim of this working session is to gather stakeholders from different sectors to explore the feasibility of  extending at a larger scale both the experiences and the partnership developed during The Pedagogical Sailboat project. This new initiative called ‘Erasmus Maris’ aims to  foster the participation of secondary school students (16+) to running scientific project in the frame of a mobility experience aboard a sailboat.

THE EVENT ADDRESSES  9
​UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS  (SDGs)