The 2nd Co-design/Co-creation Workshop of the MARCO-BOLO project took place on 6th November in Sitges, as part of The Future of Marine Biodiversity Monitoring in Europe, an initiative launched by the European Commission under the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The workshop brought together approximately fifty stakeholders, including representatives from JRC, DG MARE, DG ENV, and various institutions responsible for biodiversity monitoring across EU Member States. Participants also included representatives from organisations such as OSPAR, HELCOM, OBIS, Biodiversa +, EMODnet Biology, and GOOSBioEco, alongside researchers from universities and research centres across Europe

The completion of the 2nd Co-design/Co-creation Workshop of the MARCO-BOLO project, along with the additional information that has been possible extract from it, has allowed to identify the next outcomes:

• Successful development aligned with the objective. The general feeling of the MARCO-BOLO WP6 team who was present in Sitges, supported by the feedback directly received from participants, was very positive and encourages the organization of future co-creation events. Thus, notwithstanding certain organization limitations, the MARCO-BOLO project presented a few key products and tools to a valuable audience —especially including national representatives with responsibilities in national monitoring— who have been challenging to engage with and bring together in person. In line with this, it is necessary to highlight the benefit of leveraging key EU events as opportunities to engage such stakeholders.
• Appropriate performance for co-design concept. Undoubtedly, the workshop clearly highlighted that, within co-design/co-creation contexts, presentations should be rather concise, with clear and targeted messages. In other words, the message should always look for the stakeholder’s reaction. In the case of MARCO-BOLO presentations shown in Sitges, they adapted this format quite well. In this respect, it should be the responsibility of the MARCO-BOLO WP6 ensuring (somehow) that all speakers participating in future meetings are aligned with this concept. Similarly, it is very important that future events also consider enough quality time to engage and discuss with stakeholders, thus guaranteeing discussions that are really effective for the co-creation process.
• Stakeholders highly motivated for interaction. The high participation rate achieved in the questionnaire survey, conducted in the framework of the workshop, reflected quite well the high willingness to discuss, and interest for MARCO-BOLO products, expressed in person by the stakeholders along the event held in Sitges. 
• Profiling of stakeholders. This same questionnaire survey also provided useful information for shaping future successful meetings. In this respect, the stakeholders who participated in the survey showed a profile defined by a clear self-consideration of data user and generator, conducting biodiversity monitoring activities for different purposes, with a high interest in a wide range of MARCO-BOLO products and tools, and a marked preference for the online participation in future co-creation meetings.

Based on the outcomes of the workshop, along with the contacts established by the project Coordinator and other involved partners, the next commitments should be addressed in the next few months:

• Organization of a meeting with the different Regional Seas Conventions (RSCs). Regarding our data management plan (WP1 of MARCO-BOLO), a meeting should be organized with OSPAR, HELCOM, Black Sea Convention, and Mediterranean Convention. The aim of this meeting would be to demonstrate the usefulness of the MARCO-BOLO data strategy, also exploring how the RSCs can be part of its consequent deployment.
• Close collaboration with Biodiversa +. It is expected to advance in the co-organisation of technical workshops focused in monitoring technology products (WP4 of MARCO-BOLO). Biodiversa + is actually encouraging their members —namely, environment agencies and national funding bodies— to participate. In this respect, the WP4 workshop, initially planned in Ostend for Summer 2025 might be a good target for this purpose. Furthermore, OBAMA-NEXT and BioEcoOcean projects would be likely invited to participate in order to leverage efforts in stakeholder engagement across different EU projects. 

Finally, future meetings should be held by the WP6 partners to define adequately which are the next steps to execute, always taking into consideration not only to meet with the objectives established for this WP but also in the interest of the whole project.