The Workshop was organised by CeRISS in the framework of the Black Sea Horizon Project (BSH), at the margins of the annual meeting of the EaP Panel on Research and Innovation that took place on 14 December 2016.

The event offered an opportunity to discuss the current progress of the preparation of the Black Sea Cooperation Programme (BSCP) involving also policy makers, representatives of international organizations, Liaison Office representatives from countries and organizations that are not currently involved in that process, allowing their potential participation in the final preparatory steps.

Some relevant contribution that were provided are the following:

• "Towards a Research and Innovation Agenda in the Black Sea", Sieglinde Gruber, Head of Unit, DG RTD responsible for Maritime policy
• "BONUS: the joint Baltic Sea research and development programme", Meelis Sirendi, Programme Officer, BONUS Secretariat (EEIG)
• "Black Sea Cooperation among Member States of the BSEC Organisation in the field of Science and Technology", Ambassador Bratislav Dordevic, Executive Manager, Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation (BSEC)

And they were followed by a presentation by George Bonas from CeRISS, on the State of affairs (Terms of Reference, research topics, funding agencies), and an open discussion on further steps on how to further develop the BSCP. The main conclusions were