A European partnership
The Pro-Coast consortium represents a truly interdisciplinary group of highly competent and experienced research teams composed specifically for the project. There are 20 partners across 14 different countries, from north to south and east to west of Europe. Nine partners engage with local communities for case studies. Each partner is contributing specific knowledge to meet the project’s objectives, combining their know-how and previous work in the fields of psychology, sociology, economics, marketing, certification, ecology, modelling and software engineering. This is a key for the project’s success. Pro-Coast also provides a great opportunity to share research and best practice among European research groups, for a concrete and cost-effective public-private partnership to support the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.
The social sciences and humanities have a critical role to play in Pro-Coast. The conceptual framework applied in Pro-Coast explicitly highlights the key role of economic and social values to overcome loss of biodiversity, which are clearly the domain of the social sciences and humanities.