Overview
Don’t miss out this important discussion on how BlueMissionAA’s legacy will continue to support the ocean community.
Programme
Speakers
SPEAKER
Baiba Prūse
Baiba Prūse is an interdisciplinary researcher from Latvia with a focus on local ecological knowledge (ethnobiology) and citizen science. She hold a B.Sc. from Business Academy Aarhus (Denmark) in Environmental management field, M.Sc. from Uppsala University (Sweden) in Sustainable Development and completed her PhD on knowledge co-creation at University of Latvia. She is strongly supporting the research strategy of inter / transdisciplinarity and collaborative work between artists. She is eager to learn more on how to move from research recommendations to direct implementation and foresee – art and science combination as the perfect starting point. In October 2024, Baiba joined UCC MaREI team where with the colleagues she explores citizen engagement across Mission Ocean activities.
Speaker
Sebastian Kopf
Sebastian Maria Karl Heinrich KOPF is advisor at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA) and contributes to the EU-funded BlueMissionAA project, focusing on diverse structural governance contexts of marine and coastal restoration in the Atlantic and Arctic regions.
His work focuses on:
- advancing governance frameworks to support ecosystem restoration.
- bridging knowledge gaps and fostering collaboration among stakeholders.
- developing scalable, sustainable solutions for marine restoration challenges.
With a Master’s degree in Law of the Sea from UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Sebastian brings expertise in ocean governance and marine conservation. Before joining NIVA and BlueMissionAA, Sebastian led big-scale sustainability initiatives with the United Nations and worked on national and international Arctic educational programs.
SPEAKER
Septian Setiawan
Septian Setiawan has contributed to the BlueMissionAA project through previous citizen engagement initiatives, co-designing co-creation sessions, and organising outreach activities across the Atlantic and Arctic basins. What has inspired him most in this project is the value of inclusive and participatory approaches to mobilizing communities, the importance of aligning outreach with restoration and preservation goals, and the power of cross-border collaboration to scale the societal uptake of innovative solutions. These insights now guide his work in BlueMissionAA, where he helps design and implement creative, community-empowering activities that foster the adoption of restoration and preservation solutions, building on his prior experience with Indonesian communities and youth-focused environmental education.
Moderator
SPEAKER
Valerie de Liedekerke
Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE) expert devoted to improving global ocean management and health. My passion lies in:
- supporting and promoting emerging technological innovations that safeguard marine habitats;
- fostering collaboration amongst stakeholders;
- assisting the implementation of a SBE through a variety of means using Maritime Spatial Planning, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Governance, SBE Finance Principles and Sustainable Blue Financing;
- coaching and mentoring dynamic start-ups to operate within environmental boundaries on a socially equitable basis.
Resources
October 29, 2025, Atlantic & Arctic Lighthouse Weekly Hour S03E16: Reflecting on BlueMissionAA: from Mission Ocean to key outcomes & lessons learned