Do not miss to revisit these webinars organised by GOOS. For marine scientists, enthusiasts, educators, students, researchers and persons involved in marine observations, this series of GOOS webinars shares knowledge and presents innovative approaches for biodiversity monitoring, and a coordinated and standardised marine biology and ecosystem data collection and management system. The sessions provide an introduction to each BioEco EOV and their importance for monitoring biodiversity, enabling ecological forecasting, and supporting science, management and decision making.

The last two webinars delivered this month were:

Benthic invertebrates abundance and distribution | Sea turtles abundance and distribution

and

Seabirds abundance and distribution | Marine mammal abundance and distribution

Click here to view the all webinar recordings.

For further info on GOOS, contact Prof. Aldo Drago, GOOS Focal Point for Malta (aldo.drago@gov.mt).

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The NOSTER & Science Microbiome Prize has been established to reward innovative research by young investigators working on the functional attributes of the microbiota of any organism that has potential to contribute to our understanding of human or veterinary health and disease or to guide therapeutic interventions.

Grand Prize winner receives:

Each Grand Prize winner will be awarded a cash prize in the amount of US$25,000 and travel and accommodation for the prize ceremony.

The Grand Prize winner will also receive a free five (5) year digital subscription to Science, and will have their winning essay published in Science (print and online).

Runner(s) Up receives:

Each Runner up will receive an award plaque and travel and accommodation for the prize ceremony.

The Runner(s) Up will also receive a free one (1) year digital subscription to Science, and will have their winning essay published in Science online. Maximum number of Runners Up is 2.

All federal, state and local taxes, and any other costs and expenses, associated with the receipt or use of the prize are the sole responsibility of the winner.

Submission deadline: 14 February 2026

Click on the below link to read further.

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The INNO4CFIs Acceleration Program is calling on innovative Green tech SMEs and startups from selected European regions to foster their market uptake and validate their technologies! This Acceleration program offers equity-free support to 40 promising solutions/initiatives demonstrating strong market potential and a minimum technological readiness level (TRL of 6).

Participants will benefit from a 4-month tailored acceleration program, designed to refine their market and technology validation strategies and advance their solutions (up to TRL 9). Expert guidance will ensure compliance with Circular Economy and Regulatory Compliance Standards (CRCS) and the European Carbon Removal Certification Framework.

INNO4CFIs Acceleration Program is now accepting applications, through the third Open Call process, providing a unique opportunity for up to 15 eligible SMEs and startups to join this transformative journey.  Throughout the last 10 months, 2 other Open Calls have been launched to select up to 40 initiatives to enrol and benefit from this Acceleration Program.

Application deadline: 24 November 2025 at 17:00 CET

Visit the below link to view the guidelines.

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The University of Malta’s Rocketry team is the first Maltese team to enrol in the European Rocketry Challenge (EuRoC). The competition, held in Portugal, hosted 29 teams, drawn from universities across Europe.

Their challenge is to launch their rocket to three or nine kilometres, depending on the category.

Led by co-founder Ryan Grech, Malta’s team spent about six months getting the completely student-made rocket ready for the competition.

Being the team’s first attempt at this competition, they were up against heavyweight teams established decades ago with budgets amounting to over €100,000.

The Maltese team had to compete as novices with a conservative budget of €4,000, the smallest budget of all the teams. 

The day before they were supposed to head off for the competition, the team carried out a static fire test on the rocket motor to evaluate its performance before the competition. Things did not go to plan, and the team experienced a catastrophic failure at launch.

“In other words, the entire motor exploded and the case launched approximately 250 metres in the air,” Grech said.

The team then contemplated calling off the trip, but they chose to go anyway and attempt to build a new motor. This meant that, in the space of two days, they had to source parts in a foreign country, design a new motor and build it.

“We decided to split into three teams to make this work. A few people got into the van we rented and drove around different villages and eventually to Lisbon to source parts. A few others were tasked with speaking to other teams and asking for help. While around 20 of us remained at the Airbnb designing a new engine,” he said.

Through sheer determination, help from other teams and a bit of luck, the team were able to build a new motor.

“The officials approved it [for a static fire test] but gave the motor a 10 per cent chance of success,” he said, adding they only had enough time and resources to carry out a static launch test.

‘We thought it exploded again’

The time to carry out the static fire test arrived and the motor was set up in a concrete test stand to hold it in place.

The team stood at a safe distance, and as the launch began, the motor took off and “punched through 300kg of concrete”.

“We saw the motor fly out of the stand and land about 600 metres away. We thought it exploded again,” Grech said.

Despite their concerns, the motor appeared to be still intact. It was the stand that failed.

“It passed the review, so we could theoretically have launched the rocket. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time or resources. The motor was only single-use,” he said.

Malta’s team placed eighth out of 29 for the team award.

This project was supported by Xjenza Malta.

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What if our youngest learners grew up with a holistic understanding of the sea and its environment? Supporting Early chiLdhood education in Blue skills with generative artificial Intelligence (SELBI) is a nationally-funded research project at the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST) designed to help make that possible. Its ambitious purpose is to equip Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators with the knowledge, tools and professional confidence to teach young children about the marine environment, sustainable living and the ethical use of natural resources, supported by trustworthy artificial intelligence. This work is aligned with Malta’s Vision 2050 and with the National Strategy for Sustainable Development, which both place long-term environmental responsibility and sustainable economic transition at the centre of national policy. 

SELBI responds to a strategic national concern. Malta’s economy is deeply tied to the sea, through sectors such as fisheries, coastal tourism, marine transport and maritime services. However, growing environmental pressure along Malta’s coastline and the documented shortage of workers able to operate sustainably within the blue economy expose a long-term vulnerability. The project proceeds from a clear position: by the time young people are making post-compulsory career choices, intervention is already too late. A culture of ecological responsibility, and an understanding that the sea is both valuable and fragile must be formed in early childhood. 

The project draws together expertise in ECEC, marine sustainability, artificial intelligence and educational research. Over the past 12 months, the team has advanced through a set of coordinated phases to build, test and refine the SELBI approach.

First, the team conducted a nationwide, statistically robust survey with educators working in Kindergarten 1, Kindergarten 2, Year 1 and Year 2 across Malta. Educators were asked about their confidence in addressing areas such as marine habitats, coastal care, responsible resource use and water conservation. Its purpose was diagnostic: to identify knowledge gaps and the practical difficulties these educators encounter when supporting children’s learning about these ideas in everyday practice. 

Second, the SELBI team developed a dedicated knowledge base in response to the needs identified. This repository consists of pedagogically-appropriate material designed specifically for children in the ECEC sector in Malta. It includes prompts for guided discussion, hands-on exploratory experiences, narratives and explanatory texts that introduce ideas of care, interdependence and stewardship of the sea. The material is co-designed by ECEC specialists together with a blue economy expert, ensuring alignment with established principles of early childhood learning, namely inquiry and play. 

In parallel, the AI specialists on the team designed and built an artificial intelligence platform intended to support educators directly. The platform uses a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that can respond to educators’ questions in real time with information that is scientifically accurate, pedagogically appropriate for ECEC learners and sensitive to the Maltese context. Unlike general-purpose AI tools, this RAG system is built on a curated knowledge base developed by the SELBI team, meaning its responses are grounded in vetted, ECEC-appropriate material rather than generic or speculative output. At this stage, SELBI has reached Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL4). The core system has been architected and prototyped and is now entering controlled testing in realistic but supervised conditions. The SELBI team has already completed approximately 30 test runs to assess pedagogical suitability, factual accuracy, child safety, inclusivity and resilience against AI hallucination. 

The next phase is live educator testing. Following the necessary approvals, a participating school has been identified, and one educator from each of the ECEC year levels has agreed to collaborate with the research team. Over four months, these educators will work with the SELBI platform, provide structured feedback, and directly inform its refinement. 

As the project moves forward, SELBI aims to strengthen early childhood pedagogy in Malta and to offer a scalable model for how artificial intelligence can support marine education in the early years. 

The project team consists of six researchers at MCAST: Dr Shirley Ann Gauci (Principal Investigator), Dr Francis Delicata, Mr Alan Gatt, Mr Frankie Inguanez, Dr Heathcliff Schembri and Ms Kimberly Terribile. 

SELBI is funded by Xjenza Malta under the Research Excellence Programme (Grant Agreement REP-2024-005). 

To learn more about the project and follow its progress on SELBI website, Facebook page, and LinkedIn page.

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Offshore Freshened Groundwater (OFG) is a potentially strategic resource for coastal water security. Despite its discovery in the 1960s and estimates of substantial global volumes, OFG remains poorly understood. Existing data are sparse and largely incidental, originating from offshore hydrocarbon drilling. Research efforts so far have lacked coordinated approaches to assess OFG’s potential for sustainable use.

Advancing the understanding of OFG systems requires research into their emplacement history and age, as well as recharge and discharge mechanisms. Investigations into permeability, porosity, and fluid flow pathways will improve predictions of OFG behaviour under natural conditions and potential utilisation scenarios. Fluid flow processes, hydraulic properties, and connectivity between onshore and offshore aquifers must be studied to assess long-term viability and estimate the sustainable yield of an OFG reservoir. Understanding recharge processes under current conditions should be a prerequisite before any large-scale exploitation, as abstraction could significantly impact the freshwater-saltwater interface.

Scope of the call

The primary objective of this Joint Call is to act as a “proof of concept” through the launch of a pioneering scientific drilling campaign that integrates hydrogeological and geochemical characterisation, with pumping tests, to validate OFG systems and generate critical data on their distribution, properties, recharge mechanisms, and long-term viability as a resource. 

This initiative aims to lay the groundwork for the potential future strategic use and sustainable management of OFG resources. The campaign will target knowledge gaps, including: 

• Data scarcity and inconsistency: generating systematic and comprehensive data on OFG properties and dynamics.

• Environmental, technological, and economic feasibility: assessing the environmental impacts and evaluating the technological and economic viability of potential OFG utilisation.

• Legal and governance frameworks: informing and potentially contributing to the development of guidelines and regulatory frameworks for the integration of OFG exploration and exploitation into existing regimes. 

The following themes are identified as priorities for the Joint Call:

1. Characterisation, validation, and assessment of offshore freshened groundwater bodies, through a drilling campaign. Scientific questions originated from knowledge gaps: 

• Functioning of OFG systems and onshore-offshore connectivity

• Age of emplacement of the OFG

• Hydraulic and hydrogeologic properties

• Potential environmental impacts emerging from use of OFG 

2. Environmental assessment of offshore freshened groundwater seeps (developing environmental baselines)

• Seep characterisation (functioning of seepage)

• Seep-related ecosystems characterisation (bio-geochemical aspects)

• Monitoring 

The geographical spread of the proposed research should include the northern Adriatic Sea but will not exclude studies in other European marine basins, including other marginal seas of the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

This call is expected to be launched on 4 December 2025 with a deadline on 6 March 2026.

Visit the below link to read further.

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The Euro-Mediterranean Hub for Research & Innovation (R&I) is live connecting researchers, policymakers, institutions, and funders across the Euro-Med region.

The Euro-Med Hub serves as a one-stop platform to explore research outcomes, best practices, policy papers, and collaboration opportunities, including funding calls, networks, and clusters.

This initiative supports the implementation of the UfM Regional Platform on Research and Innovation Roadmaps, strengthening Mediterranean cooperation in key areas such as health, renewable energy, and climate change.

Why join the Hub?

• Centralised resources – Access research, best practices, policy documents, and funding opportunities.
• Networking – Connect with the Mediterranean R&I community, including clusters and experts.
• Collaboration – Find partners, join communities of practice, and engage in policy dialogue.
• Events & opportunities – Stay updated on regional initiatives and calls for participation.

📄 Download the official flyer and learn more

👉 Register today to connect, collaborate, and make the most of the Hub’s networking and funding opportunities!

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