MSP4MORE

Description

MSP4MORE responds to the urgent challenge of maritime spatial planning (MSP) to enhance offshore renewable energy production while balancing this goal with parallel policy targets. These include expanding marine protected areas (MPAs), promoting ecosystem restoration and minimising competition for space with other sea uses. Currently, efforts to achieve these multiple policy objectives often lack coordination. There is a clear need to consider their trade-offs, associated risks for sustainable development, and potential synergies.

The project aims to optimise the design and location of offshore wind farms (OWFs) to align with diverse policy goals across the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Barents Seas. Through integrative research in seven study areas and by leveraging findings from various ongoing initiatives, MSP4MORE fosters innovation through collaborative efforts with stakeholders from government, industry, academia, and civil society. To support sustainable OWF planning and decision-making, the project explores how OWF can provide added value through nature-inclusive designs and multi-use applications. It also examines socio-cultural factors that influence OWF implementation and acceptance and advances tools to assess the cumulative effects of various OWF different designs and levels of expansion at the sea basin scale. 

Integrated into its research plan, the project develops stakeholder-inclusive knowledge, tools and approaches for optimising planning solutions. The goal is to enable the sustainable co-existence of various sea uses through identifying and dealing with trade-offs and enhancing synergies, based on effects on net impacts on species, habitats and a range of ecosystem services, while also considering the implications of climate change. Strategies for minimising negative impacts and enhancing positive outcomes are emphasised, guided by the principle of "mitigating the bad, promoting the good".  

MSP4MORE will synthesise findings into best practices and practical decision support for local, national, and regional MSP challenges related to OWF expansion. These outcomes will  advance  the efficiency of MSP in reaching targets for renewable energy and support EU policies on nature conservation and restoration, aligning with the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the Habitats and Birds Directives, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and Nature Restoration Law, and the goals of the EU Blue Growth strategy, ultimately promoting goals for climate mitigation and biodiversity.
 

Coordinator: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU, Sweden

Partners: 

• University of Tartu, UTartu, Estonia
• Suomen ymparistokeskus (“Finnish Environment Institute”), Syke, Finland
• Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, PUNIV, Greece
• Hellenic Centre Marine Research, HCMR, Greece
• Institute of Marine Research, IMR, Norway
• Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, RBINS, Belgium
• University of Antwerp, UAntwerpen, Belgium
• Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR", BIOR, Latvia
• EIGEN VERMOGEN VAN HET INSTITUUT VOOR LANDBOUW- EN VISSERIJONDERZOEK, EV ILVO, Belgium