At the “18th Klett Geography Symposium: Plastic Planet or Blue Planet – It's in Our Hands", Mandy Hinzmann presented the “Plastic Pirates – German Coast” project. Plastic Pirates is a citizen science project in which young people work in groups to investigate (plastic) waste pollution in waterways using a standardised scientific method.

During the first day of the PartWiss 2025 conference, Doris Knoblauch delivered a presentation on the Europe-wide citizen science project, 'Plastic Pirates – Go Europe', during the thematic session, 'Participatory Approaches to Shaping the Science-Policy Interface'. During her presentation, she explored the intersection of natural and social science methods within the project. Using studies of the North Sea and Baltic Sea coasts as an example, she showed how school classes in Kiel, St. Peter-Ording, Rostock and Flensburg had collected data on plastic pollution, before discussing the causes, responsibilities and possible solutions in focus groups.

From 12 to 14 November 2025, Hannah Brunkhorst took part in the Participatory Science Conference (PartWiss) in Leipzig, where innovative projects and approaches were presented under the motto "Researching together – Impulses from citizen science, participatory, and transdisciplinary research". At the end of the first day of the PartWiss 2025 conference, participants gathered for a large poster session. A total of 30 posters were presented, providing interesting insights into various projects in the fields of citizen science, participatory and transdisciplinary research.

The 26th Arctic Dialogue took place on 6 November 2025 at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) in Berlin. The programme comprised several panels and discussion formats addressing the impacts of climate change on the Arctic, including Arctic landscapes, pollution, and biodiversity, complemented by a roundtable discussion among ministries and institutions. Arne Riedel and Gregory Fuchs represented Ecologic Institute at the 26th Arctic Dialogue.

For five days, experts from politics, science and environmental organisations discussed more protection for the oceans at the 3rd UN Ocean Conference in Nice: Climate change, overfishing and pollution are threatening marine biodiversity worldwide. Europeans were strongly represented, as were countries from the Global South, as well as important G20 countries such as Australia, India, Brazil and China. Dr Grit Martinez took part in the UN Ocean Conference on behalf of Ecologic Institute's Coastal and Marine Research Division. At the conference, a sincere commitment to the protection and sustainable use of the oceans was evident.

As part of the annual Marine Nature Conservation Colloquium, scientists from the research projects commissioned by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) present their interim results and open questions. On behalf of Ecologic Institute, Dr. Grit Martinez presented initial results from the research project The German North Sea and Baltic Sea over 100 years ago (HISTOMAR). The "Shifting Baseline Syndrome" was the focus of the presentation and the subsequent discussion.

On 12 and 13 February 2025, Arne Riedel and Fenja Kroos from Ecologic Institute participated in the Network Conference of the Thematic Group "Polar and Ocean Politics", held at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Berlin. The conference brought together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to discuss current challenges in polar and ocean politics.

On 14 November 2024, the district of Wittmund (Lower Saxony, North Sea coast, Germany) hosted a workshop addressing key challenges at the intersection of marine and coastal protection, sustainable tourism, and climate adaptation. For the first time, marine protection will feature as a dedicated focus in the district's climate protection and adaptation concepts, reflecting a progressive approach to tackling climate impacts in the North Sea region.

In the face of rapidly changing marine environments, innovative strategies are essential to preserve biodiversity and promote sustainability. Gregory Fuchs recently led a series of workshops on the island of Vilm (Baltic Sea, Germany), highlighting how Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) and Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) can address complex marine challenges. He also shared insights from research projects like Marine SABRES.

On 4 April 2024, Mandy Hinzmann presented communication insights and best practices of the citizen science program "Plastic Pirates" at the European Citizen Science Conference in Vienna. The presentation highlighted that effective communication strategies are crucial for the success of citizen science initiatives.

Organized by the Euro-Mediterranean Climate Change Center (CMCC) in close collaboration with the EU Climate Change Adaptation Mission, the European project Climateurope2 celebrated a festival uniting science, services and standards for a climate resilient future from 11 to 13 March 2024. Dr. Grit Martinez of Ecologic Institute contributed to the festival with a set of activities spanning from facilitation of fishbowl discussion and break out groups with practitioners to an interview with the media team of Climateurope2. Climateurope2 team wishes to thank all participants for actively participating in the Climateurope2 Festival. The insightful discussions, presentations and debates that took place over the three days of the event laid the basis for fostering new connections within the European climate services community.

The 87th UNEP/UNESCO/BMUV International Short Course focuses on ecosystem restoration for the SDGs. Gregory Fuchs of Ecologic Institute was invited to deliver a lecture on marine and coastal ecosystem restoration. The course is specifically aimed at experts who prepare and implement political decisions and practical measures towards the goals of ecosystem restoration and sustainable development.

The global crisis of the oceans, which has been a tangible and palpable problem in other parts of the world for many years, is increasingly becoming an issue in this country as well. The natural and technical sciences, in particular, have contributed to raising societal awareness about the state of the world's oceans in large-scale research initiatives. Against the backdrop of the ongoing UN Decade of Oceans (2021-2030), an interdisciplinary marine "scoping workshop" took place in Hannover from 7 until 9 June 2023. Dr. Grit Martinez represented Ecologic Institute in this exchange and presented her experiences from interdisciplinary marine collaboration in the EU research project RISC-KIT.

During this webinar, Ecologic Institute's Dr. Nico Stelljes presented the highlights and the findings of the project "Indicators of an Integrated German Marine Policy" and gave an overview of a possible set of indicators to assess an integrated maritime policy at a national level, with the scope to stimulate discussions on similarities and differences in the integrated approaches to the maritime economy in the Baltic Sea Region.

In her presentation, titled "Evaluating environmental policies with citizen science data? An example from the Plastic Pirates investigating plastic pollution of rivers", Linda Mederake (Ecologic Institute) presented an approach to evaluate the Single-Use Plastics Directive with the help of citizen science data.