The EU funded projets ProBleu and SHORE open up a dialogue toward the ambitious target of UNESCO: ocean literacy in the school curricula

Ocean literacy is a key factor of the Ocean Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development Goals to transform the citizen relation with the blue planet toward its protection. The enhancement of the citizens' engagement and of the blue curricula implementation in formal education (Santoro et. al 2022) are considered strategic actions to reach the 7 outcomes of the Ocean Decade (UNESCO-IOC, 2021). As a matter of fact, the UNESCO during the One Ocean Summit (Brest, 2022)  launched an open call to the Member States to all together reach the ambitious objective of ocean education in school curricula by 2025.  On the other hand, the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030 accepted this challenge supporting proposals about blue schools and ocean literacy. Citizen engagement is one of the crucial points of this EU Mission. In particular the ProBleu and SHORE EU funded projects have forged a collaboration about the European dialogue about the blue curricula implementation in formal education in which citizen science has to be an important tool for the students participation. These projects are focused on digital tools and the empowerment of youngsters, respectively, towards the Network of European Blue Schools (NEBS) improvement. ProBleu  focuses on innovative resources based on the Open Schooling approach and citizen science projects.  While SHORE will engage & mobilise students and schools promoting country hubs and guidance for the educators and schools on blue curricula. Both projects are collaborating to increase the NEBS supporting small grants for schools actions all over Europe and associated countries encouraging engagement and collaboration between  the scientific and the educational communities.