The goal of our research at CMMI is to solve the most important challenges facing the Blue Economy. Our Research and Innovation Mission Units (RIMUs) are the most important tool to achieve this. They are cross-centre units, bringing together scientists with different expertise to work towards a common Blue Economy Mission.

They are cross-centre units, bringing together scientists with different expertise from all CMMI centres to work together in achieving CMMI’s Research and Innovation Missions which are the following:

• RIM 1:   To make the sustainable Blue Economy carbon-neutral

          R&I mission unit: ZEST 

• RIM 2:   To protect and restore marine and coastal ecosystems and biodiversity

          R&I mission unit: Deep Blue Lab 

• RIM 3:   To prevent and eliminate pollution of our sea and waters

          R&I mission unit: Sea – Centaurs

• RIM 4:   To build a digital knowledge system of our Sea

          R&I mission unit: Proteus 

• RIM 5:   To attract, develop and retain the workforce of the Blue Economy

          R&I mission unit: Blue Cove 

While a horizontal mission acts as a mission enabler for all of them:

• To connect the civil society and local communities with the Sea around us

          R&I mission unit: Our Sea 

The Conception

Mission-oriented research & innovation is the vision of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. Like important global challenges such as the Apollo Mission to land man on the moon, European Commission Missions will be tasked with tackling the biggest challenges facing Europe today. The European Commission has already set a number of missions that follow the below paradigm: