The Germ of Life project took part this week in Lisbon in the working sessions of the Natural Heritage Mission Community of Practice of the Interreg Euro-MED Programme, a collaborative space where projects and organisations from different Mediterranean countries worked together to advance common goals related to sustainability, water management and the protection of natural heritage.
The Natural Heritage Mission aims to foster cooperation between projects and facilitate the transfer of knowledge and results developed at European level into effective policies and practical solutions across territories. In this context, the sessions held at the Instituto Superior de Gestão (ISG) in Lisbon provided an opportunity to share experiences, coordinate future actions and continue progressing towards common objectives related to environmental and climate resilience.
Representing Germ of Life at the meeting were Panagiota Saranti, Project Manager of the project and engineer at the University of Patras; Inés Camilo, environmental engineer at Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infra-estruturas do Alqueva – EDIA (Portugal); and Gerasimos Kolokythas, representative of the Region of Western Greece and specialist in coastal, estuarine and river hydraulics, as well as near-shore processes and sediment transport.
The working agenda focused on strategic issues aimed at further promoting the protection of natural heritage in the Mediterranean, addressing topics such as cooperation between projects, sustainable water management, the transfer of results and their practical implementation across territories.
The sessions also provided an opportunity to work on new awareness-raising actions, communication strategies, policy advocacy and the development of joint initiatives within the different thematic clusters of the Natural Heritage Mission.
The meeting also served as the launch platform for the #SolveTheChallenge2026 campaign, an awareness initiative promoted by the Natural Heritage Mission to strengthen public engagement and increase the visibility of projects linked to sustainability and the protection of Mediterranean natural heritage.
Thanks to this meeting, Germ of Life continues to strengthen cooperation with other projects and organisations across the Euro-Mediterranean region, share knowledge and move forward in the development of innovative solutions to the environmental and climate challenges affecting the Mediterranean.
