University of Haifa

Description

A Short Description of UH

The University of Haifa (UH) is the largest comprehensive research university in northern Israel and the most pluralistic institution of higher education in the country. Founded in 1963, the UH has developed into a world-class academic institution with over 600 experts in Education, Humanities, Law, Social Sciences, Public Health and Social Welfare, Natural Sciences, including ICT, Sustainability, Energy, Environment, Marine Sciences, Political Sciences and more, that is dedicated to pursuing excellence in academic research and teaching. The UH has participated in 76 EU funded projects, in 36 of them as a coordinator and currently has >20 active Horizon 2020 projects.

The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences (CSMS) is the largest academic centre of marine sciences in Israel, and includes four complementary departments; the Department of Maritime Civilizations, the Department of Marine Geosciences, the Department of Marine Biology and the Department of Marine Technologies. We actively partake in teaching marine science within the curricula of the B.A. program for Navy captains, and the M.A. program in National Security and Maritime Strategies through the School of Political Sciences. The close collaboration of scientists from the four departments offers unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research that can holistically address past, present, and future aspects of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. CSMS research is augmented by associated research centres: The Strategy and Research Centre, The Haifa Centre for Mediterranean History, and the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies. The CSMS was chosen by the State of Israel to lead the Mediterranean Sea Research Centre of Israel (MERCI), a consortium of seven universities, two colleges and two governmental research institutes, working together under the leadership of the University of Haifa. MERCI addresses the array of scientific, technological, economic, security and environmental challenges and opportunities we are facing within the Mediterranean and along Israel’s coastline. Our research sites also include 3 coastal research centres with easy access to the Mediterranean. These comprise the Hatter Department of Marine Technologies laboratories and The Helmsley Mediterranean Sea Research Centre, a facility that develops and operates state-of-the-art underwater vehicles. The Morris Kahn Marine Research Station at Sdot-Yam and Ashdod are long-term marine ecological research stations that focus on coastal water research and on anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment of the eastern Mediterranean

Website: http://www.haifa.ac.il/

Role In Project

The main role and tasks allocated to UH in Iliad

WP7 - Citizen Science; increase citizen engagement, through increased awareness and understanding of the dynamics and interactions of seas and oceans and their role in our well-being and survival, promoting bottom-up actions, empowering citizens in innovative co-designed services and new project designs where citizens' opinions are considered from the initial stages.

WP9 – Provision of services, e.g. monitoring, for Blue Growth development: mariculture, fisheries, port authorities, marine transport, tourism, renewable energy, etc.

WP10 – stakeholder engagement – interaction with Blue Growth stakeholders to ensure the services required for their activities are operational.

WP11 - Evaluate effectiveness of Iliad tools to assess ecosystem status and to mitigate impacts of global climate change and other stressors on the marine system and on Marine Cultural Heritage Sites.

WP12 - Improve policymaking by developing policy engagement tools, engaging key stakeholders and assessing the current state of policy.