Executive Summary
This toolbox supports inclusive and effective citizen engagement in the context of the EU Mission Ocean & Waters. It offers practical tools, strategic guidance, and tested methods for involving people in shaping marine and freshwater research, governance, and innovation. Whether you are designing a local consultation, co-creating a community habitat restoration project, planning a citizens’ assembly, or developing a funding application, the toolbox serves as a navigation aid — helping you steer engagement efforts from concept to impact.
Citizen engagement is not just about filling a room — it’s about sharing decisions. When done well it can increase legitimacy, improve outcomes, and foster long-term relationships between communities, policymakers, and the ocean. However, engagement strategies must be tailored to context. This toolbox helps users choose the right approach by linking the type of engagement to the type of problem, risk level, and desired outcomes.
The content is organised into six parts:
- Part 1 provides detail on ‘how to use this toolbox’.
- Part 2 introduces tools to help you plan citizen engagement — including tips and templates for selecting participants, ideas for how to engage them effectively, and how to monitor your progress and success. It also offers suggestions for improving funding applications, with a focus on expanding the range of tools used in Mission Ocean & Waters projects.
- Part 3 presents the same tools, but with added context — offering both the theoretical foundations and practical insights behind how and why they work.
- Part 4 shares practical examples from EU-funded projects and networks that are working towards the citizen participation goals of The Mission. They demonstrate diverse approaches in real-world settings, that readers may consider adapting, repeating, or connecting with in your own context.
- Part 5 provide implementation tools; methods for citizen engagement.
- Part 6 summarizes the toolbox with eight recommendations for citizen engagement with Mission Ocean & Waters.
- Appendices 1 to 4 provide implementation tools — including more detailed templates, a suite of methodological approaches and tools for consideration.
A core emphasis throughout is on inclusion and equity, in line with the Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principle. The toolbox encourages users to consider exclusion not only in structural terms (who is missing), but also as a subjective experience (how participation feels) and as a design question (what we can do differently). The toolbox also discusses when inclusion may not be appropriate in the local context, and some of the ethical concerns projects should consider.
The toolbox is designed to support alignment with the Mission’s eight citizen engagement targets (Appendix 4), and to help build lasting, connected, and trusted forms of participation across Europe’s marine and maritime regions.
Publication info
How to cite this document (publication information)
This toolbox has been developed as part of PREP4BLUE, a Horizon Europe project (grant no. 101056957), funded by the European Union. PREP4BLUE is a partnership of 18 different institutions from across Europe that supports the EU Commission’s Mission: Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030.
Full title: Engaging Citizens with Mission Ocean & Waters: A toolbox of approaches. Guidance on methods for facilitating, monitoring and assessing citizen participation levels and for rolling out a European wide network of assemblies of citizens.
Published by Nordlandsforskning AS /Nordland Research Institute.
Document information
(Lead) Authors: Maiken Bjørkan, Liz Morris-Webb, Salina Spiering, Vida Steiro, Leticia Antunes Nogueira, Bjarne Lindeløv, Cecilie Bratt (Nordland Research Institute), David Whyte, Aoife Deane (MaREI UCC)
Contributors: Cécile Nys, Natalia Martin Palenzuela, Andreu Blanco Cartagena, Caecilia Manago
Version: 2.0
How to cite_v2: Bjørkan et al. (2025) Engaging Citizens with Mission Ocean & Waters: A toolbox of approaches. Deliverable 3.4. PREP4BLUE.
Versioning and contribution history (Version, Date, Authors (Institution), Notes)
0.1, 28.01.2023, Bjørkan, Steiro, Nogueria and Lindeløv (NRI), Made changes in line with feedback from partners
0.2, 19.05.2023, Bjørkan, Steiro, Nogueira and Lindeløv (NRI), Made changes in line with comments, including changing the order, incorporated a new section (Theory and terminology), table of figures
1.0, 15.01.2024, First online version
1.1, 04.04.2024, 6.3 added
1.1, 15.01.2025, Bjørkan, Spiering, Morris-Webb and Lindeløv (NRI), Major re-structure of toolbox following feedback from PREP4BLUE Pilot Activity users.
Primary aims of re-structure were to:
- Improve readability and inclusive language;
- Reduce the number of tables and language in figures.
- Split into user-specific guides for users who are interested in different aspects of citizen engagement:
- Practitioners’ toolbox: I work on small projects, and may have my own processes or have done a lot of citizen engagement, so am less interested in the science behind citizen engagement
- Big project and researcher’s guide: I am building a new project and want to start from scratch to engage a diversity of citizens and stakeholders
1.2, 13.05.2025, Circulated for internal review from the consortium
2.0, 16.06.2025, second online version
Disclaimer
Funded by the European Union, through its Horizon Europe Program, Grant No. 101056957 (PREP4BLUE). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or of the granting authority, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
Acknowledgements
This development of this toolbox would not have been possible without the participation of the many people working on citizen engagement to help achieve the EU Mission Restore our Ocean & Waters. The PREP4BLUE Pilot Action winners were the first to discuss and test the use of these tools, using tools proposed in v1. Their practical experience was essential in the development of v2 of the toolbox. We particularly thank those who were happy to add their case studies to the updated toolbox in 4.1: especially Nicole Loeser, Institute for Art and Innovation (Germany); Anna Kellagher, Sea Synergy Marine Awareness, Research & Activity Centre (Ireland), and Michal Lovecky, Go360 s.r.o (Czechia). We would also like to thank the following individuals for their valuable insights and contributions as interview partners for 4.5 “Establishing a Network of Citizens’ Assemblies for Mission Ocean & Waters”: Mark Hessellund Beanland, KNOCA (Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies) and Democracy x Foundation, Ines Omann, Klimarat (Austria), and an anonymous interview partner from Mehr Demokratie (Germany).