The 2-day workshop, funded within the framework of the BMU’s (Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety) Environmental Research Plan, took place from 3 to 4 December 2019 in Augsburg at the Bavarian State Office for the Environment.

With the aim of achieving "good ecological status" in all water bodies by 2015, the Water Framework Directive requires Member States to put more emphasis on hydromorphological issues and watercourse connectivity for the conservation and restoration of fish populations. The aim for the third cycle of the "Forum Fish Protection and Downstream Migration" is to continue the series of workshops on fish protection and downstream migration and to evaluate them in papers, reports and publications. In addition, the website forum-fischschutz.de is updated and improved. Additionally in this project, the fourth UBA Hydromorphology Workshop is organised.

Ecologic Institute was asked by IASS to give a lecture on "Legal aspects of big data in the energy sector" at the ENavi Summer School 2019 on Digitalisation in the Energy Transition. Its participants consisted of persons with a strong interest in sustainability and energy topics at the beginning of their professional careers. The lecture presented the legal issues arising from the use of Big Data technologies in the context of energy supply.

From June 2018 to the end of January 2019, the Commission on "Growth, Structural Change and Employment" met as an independent body comprised of covering a broad cross-section of social, political and economic actors. As per its mandate from the German Federal Government adopted on 6 June 2018, the Commission was requested to develop a plan for ending coal-fired power generation in Germany, which would both contribute to meeting the Federal Government's climate policy goals, but also deliver recommendations on manging structural change in the coal regions and create new, future-proof jobs.

To emphasise important messages of the IPCC special report relating to climate and environmental policy and to make them available for policy-making, the German Federal Environment Agency presented selected findings of the report in a webinar on 26 October 2018. A second webinar on this topic took place on 23 November 2018. Ecologic Institute supported the Federal Environment Agency in the logistical and content-related organisation of both webinars.

The aim of the project participants is to provide the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) with scientific support in communicating the results of the IPCC Special Reports on "Climate Change and Land" (SRCCL) and "The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate" (SROCC). This is achieved by preparing the contents of the special reports by means of core messages, explanatory texts and presentations in webinars.

Helene Hoffmann, scientific researcher on marine topics at Ecologic Institute, presented the concepts of 'Blue Society and Ocean Literacy' at the Open Sea Lab Kick-off event in Brussels on 24 May 2019. The Kick-off marked the official opening of the applications to participate in the Open Sea Lab Hackathon 2019, which is taking place from 4 to 6 September 2019 in Ghent (Belgium).

On 4 June 2019 was a workshop at the Federal Ministery for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) to discuss a proposal for a new guidance standard (ISO 14002-2) for managing water with ISO 14001. The workshop served as a platform for information and discussion on the planned standard, bringing together interested experts from water management, water stewardship and environmental management, in and outside of the ISO community. The aim of the workshop was to refine the draft of the proposal for a new guidance standard concerning the scope, structure, conceptual approach and outline of ISO 14002-2. The results of the workshop will be used to update the draft of the proposal before it will be submitted to ISO for an international approval process.

The fourth episode of the environment podcast "Knowledge for Future" focuses on opportunities for creating comprehensively sustainable value chains within an operation and provides a picture of environmentally conscious coexistence for the near future.

The third episode of the environment-focused podcast "Knowledge for Future" looks at concepts for sustainable financing.

As part of the project "Environmental Guidelines of German Arctic Policy" funded by the Federal Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute hosted the expert workshop "Environmental protection of the High North – How to protect the Arctic from afar?" on 24 October 2018 in Berlin. The aim of the workshop was to facilitate exchange and discussion on how observers of the Arctic Council can engage strategically and practically in the protection of the Arctic environment. The exchange with states active in the High North, indigenous communities, businesses, research and civil society produced solutions for a sustainable development in the Arctic that allows for the reconciliation of a wide spectrum of interests in the region. The focus was on climate change and air pollution control, shipping in the Arctic and sustainable tourism in the region.

On 29 May 2019, Doris Knoblauch and Linda Mederake, both scientific researchers at Ecologic Institute, were guest "professors" at the Nürti Üni, the pupils' university of the Nürtingen Primary School in Berlin Kreuzberg. They held a lecture on "Plastics Crisis – Advantages of Plastics and the Problems of Plastic Consumption".

The RECIPES website (REconciling sCience, Innovation and Precaution through the Engagement of Stakeholders) provides an overview of the project objectives, structure and partners as well as events and news related to relevant project results. Reports, policy briefs, factsheets, recommendations and newly developed tools for policy makers will be regularly promoted on the website. Ecologic Institute is responsible for the concept, design, programming and update of the website. User can directly subscribe for the mailing list.

How can innovation help Europe adapt to climate change? And how can Europe help innovators to turn their climate adaptation ideas into implemented, effective, and financially sustainable solutions? Ecologic Institute researchers presented answers from the BRIGAID project to these questions at the 2019 European Climate Change Adaptation Conference, in Lisbon (Portugal), from 29 to 31 May 2019.