Engaging Citizens with Mission Ocean and Waters

Public mobilisation and engagement are crucial elements in the European Commission’s EU Mission: Restore Our Ocean & Waters (referred in this document also as ‘Mission Ocean & Waters’ or ‘the Mission’). Not quite sure what Mission Ocean & Waters is all about? You are in the right place! With a 2030 target, the Mission aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement and blue investments⁸. You can find plenty more information on the Mission, and how it might apply to you, throughout this guide.

This toolbox supports effective citizen engagement in Mission Ocean & Waters — in other words, how to meaningfully involve people in in shaping, contributing to, and influencing marine-related decisions, actions, and knowledge. Also known as public participation, civic involvement, or citizen participation, we use both ‘citizen engagement’ and ‘citizen participation’ as umbrella terms throughout this toolbox.

What we can tell you now is that there is a wealth of approaches that facilitate engagement with The Mission, whether through co-production of knowledge, citizen participation, activation and training, hackathons, citizen science initiatives and others.

Among this variety, it can be challenging to acquire an overview of what you need to do with whom to achieve your goal. In this document, we offer a toolbox that introduces project organisers to The Mission, explores different types of citizen engagement, risks associated with citizen engagement, who to engage and how to do this successfully, how to evaluate your success, together with a deeper dive into the science behind our suggestions.

Simply put, this toolbox provides a framework to guide users, no matter what their experience, to support citizen engagement with Mission Ocean & Waters. However, the toolbox can be used to develop any project involving people – from individual members of the public to targeted organisations, sectors or even researchers and politicians. Therefore, this toolbox can apply to any of the following:

1. Practitioners: Anyone (individual, organisation, institution, initiative) working on citizen engagement in marine and freshwater matters across Europe.
2. Project consortia: Individuals and organisations applying for, or successful in gaining, funding under future EU Oceans Pact / Mission Restore our Ocean & Water calls.
3. Researchers and Innovators: This guide sets a foundation for further research into participatory methods, direct democracy and bottom-up governance for marine and freshwater matters.
4. The European Commission: This guide will be delivered to the European Commission and, where appropriate, will hopefully influence the shape of future funding calls in line with the best practices outlined herein.

To reflect different people’s needs, we have split the toolbox into five parts, and you will be asked prompting questions throughout the guide to take you where you need to go.

Each part supports a different stage of your citizen engagement work: from planning and recruiting to choosing methods and evaluating impact. Whether you're working on a small local consultation or a multi-country Mission Ocean & Waters initiative, you can select the parts most relevant to your project.

The structure follows a simple logic:

• Part 1 provides details 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. This part includes examples of many of the tools presented in the previous Parts 2 and 3 of the guide. They demonstrate diverse approaches in real-world settings, that readers may consider adapting, repeating, or connecting with, in your own context.
• Part 5 is a toolbox of specific methods that can be used to help with citizen engagement; survey, citizen’s assemblies, future scenario workshops, semi-structured interviews, walking interviews, participatory mapping and strategic ocean literacy as a way of working.
• 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 and evaluation tools for consideration.

Parts 2 and 3 offer tools and background depending on how much detail you need, under the following subheadings:

• Introduction to engaging citizens with Mission Ocean & Waters
• Types of participation to consider, depending on risk and desired outcome (Part 3 only)
• Who should you engage? Tools for planning engagement
• How should you involve citizens? Tools for planning for implementation
• And why are you doing it again? Tools planning for impact – monitoring and evaluating citizen engagement

Practical tips, examples, and shortcuts are highlighted throughout. Use what you need — and adapt as you go.

Now, let’s dive right in and test it out!

Please select which of the following parts describes you best and we will take you where you need to go (click on the titles):

• Part 2: I work on small projects, may have my own processes or have done a lot of citizen engagement, so I am less interested in the science behind citizen engagement.
• Part 3: I am building a new project and want to start from scratch to engage a diversity of citizens and stakeholders, or I would like to dive deeper into the science behind citizen engagement.
  
• Part 4: I just want to see some examples of the ways that projects can engage with Mission Ocean & Waters.