North-West Institute of Management of RANEPA participates in the large international project «BLACK SEA CONNECT». The project aim is to create organizational and technical platform for international cooperation in the Black Sea Region including Russian educational and research organizations and development of Blue Growth Strategy in the region.

The project «BLACK SEA CONNECT» was approved by the Horizon 2020 Programme (application – EU Proposal 860055), topic «Coordination of marine research and innovations in the Black Sea». The start of practical activities on the project is scheduled for the third quarter of 2019.

12 largest universities and research organizations participate from all Black Sea States are taking part in the «BLACK SEA CONNECT» project as well as the Organization of Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) and Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN). The duration of the project is 36 months, the anticipated date of completion – the third quarter of 2022, the total budget is 2 million EUR. The Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey is the leader of the project.

NWIN RANEPA project group is headed by Andrey Lappo, PhD., Honorable Construction Worker of the Russian Federation, a member of expert group on elaboration of the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) in the Black Sea Region.

Also NWIN RANEPA project group consists of the SRIA expert members: Larisa Danilova, Sergey Kovalev, PhD and other staff of NWIN RANEPA.

The project group has a rich experience. Particularly, more than two years the group was elaborating the documents for Burgas Ministerial Declaration on Blue Economy.