Consortium Steering Committee Advisory Bodies

Advisory Board

As part of WP7, two external advisory bodies have been set up: the APPLE (Advisory Panel of Policy and Legal Experts) and the PIE (Panel of Industry Experts). These panels serve multiple purposes: they are guiding the project in its legal and policy work (APPLE), guaranteeing outreach within the policy community (APPLE), assisting with the selection of interesting leads (PIE), serving as a sounding board towards the larger business community (PIE) and helping with making the business case for MARBLES project results.

The APPLE is composed of 11 representatives from the European Commission, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) secretariat, the United Nations (UN) Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on Nature-based Solutions for preservation of ecosystems, the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI) as well as industrial policy experts. The APPLE is providing a proactive interface between MARBLES and the relevant policy stakeholders. As with the PIE, the information flow is bidirectional, the project is informing the policy and legal experts on any questions they might have regarding the science, while also helping the policy and legal experts to improve their policy making and enforcement. The APPLE brings together the breadth of experience necessary to focus the direction of project activities towards addressing the critical policy and legal issues relating to marine bioprospecting in Europe. The APPLE hold a one-day virtual meeting twice a year, as well as two physical two-day meetings (in M18 – 18 October 2022 and in M48 – April 2025) organised in convenient locations. The physical meetings are held back-to-back with the PIE meetings, giving the PIE members the opportunity to also participate in the APPLE meetings, further advancing the dialogue between industry and policy, and reaffirming the go-between role of MARBLES.