The 7th workshop of the forum "Fish Protection and Downstream Migration" was dedicated to the topic of improving the implementation of measures at the end of the second cycle of the forum. The workshop took place in Dresden in April 2018. Important to this workshop was the task of creating a summary of the intense discourse that had taken place between all of the stakeholders over the past six years. These discourses were then synthesized into twelve guidelines. The recommendations and results of the event are available for download.

On 17 April 2018, a few month's before Romania's EU presidency, a high-level workshop discussed Rumanian views on the EU reform process, and the role of climate and energy policies in it. This event is part of a series of workshops on EU reform and its links to climate and energy policies. A summary of the workshop is available.

The workshop "Regional Food Systems and Sustainable Land Use in the Rural Urban Nexus" on 11 April 2018 discussed the potential that food systems can play to improve rural urban linkages. The workshop aimed to discuss the available insights at international level about success factors of regional food policies and if these are also relevant in the German context. To do so, the workshop brought together local policy makers, federal policy makers as well as participants from research and civil society. Stephanie Wunder, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute and project leader of the Rural Urban Nexus project, presented success factors known from international examples and studies that promote rural urban linkages through regional food systems.

On 27 March 2018, around 20 social scientists, all involved in a project of the research program "Plastic in the Environment", funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research, met to network and discuss future possibilities to increase the visibility of the social and political dimensions of plastics in the environment. The chair for science and technology policy at the Munich Center for Technology in Society organized the meeting together with Ecologic Institute.

Around 50 scientists from twelve collaborative projects of the research focus on plastics in the environment met for a first exchange on sampling, sample preparation and analysis of microplastics at the Water Technology Center (TZW) in Karlsruhe. The workshop, organized by TZW and the Ecologic Institute, aimed to coordinate and learn from each other the many difficulties in identifying and quantifying microplastics from water or soil samples.

The first meeting of think tanks focusing on EU climate policy explored how European climate action can help to address the multiple crises the EU is facing. Supported by the Mercator Foundation, convened by Mercator Senior Fellow R. Andreas Kraemer and hosted by Ecologic Institute, 20 representatives from policy institutes from 10 countries identified windows of opportunity for policy intervention, and explored ways and means for cooperation and coordination in the EU.

The workshop "Car Sharing in Germany" took place on 8 March 2018, hosted in Berlin by Ecologic Institute. In the first part of the workshop experts addressed the current state of affairs of car sharing in Germany, confirming the dynamic nature of the industry and the difficulties involved in assessing its size and effects. In the second portion of the workshop they focused on future developments as well as the importance of policy for a societal transition away from privately owned vehicles. Ecologic Institute co-organized the workshop as part of the CIRCULAR IMPACTS project and in collaboration with Service Innovation Labs.

On 4 December 2017, at the end of Estonia's EU presidency, a high-level workshop discussed Estonian views on the EU reform process, and the role of climate and energy policies in it. This event is part of a series of workshops on EU reform and its links to climate and energy policies. A summary of the workshop is available.

Food Waste policy is affected by a large range of EU policies. EU food waste policy though lacks an integrated approach. Participants see opportunities to go beyond sectoral solutions through an integrated EU Food Policy. Workshop documentation is available for download.

Ecologic Institute supported the German Environment Agency in hosting the workshop "Decarbonisation – 100 % Renewable Energy and more: Transformation pathways to a greenhouse gas neutral and resource efficient society," which took place on 17 October 2017 in Berlin.

The Baltic Sea is among the most polluted water bodies in the world because of poor land and water management in the basin. In many cases, water resources in the Baltic Sea region are transboundary and flow across national borders linking neighbours in management and development challenges. After many years of silence amongst Polish and Russian authorities, a meeting between regional water authorities from Olsztyn in Poland and Kaliningrad Oblask in Russia was arranged in eastern Poland with the support of Ecologic Institute. The event slides are available for download.

Marine ecosystems such as the Faial-Pico Channel, in the Azores, provide stakeholders with a broad range of valuable ecosystem services, including fish and recreation opportunities for locals and tourists. The global decline of marine biodiversity as well as the diverging interests between sectors such as fisheries and tourism place challenges upon policy-makers, administrators, and managers. In a response to this challenge, Marine Protected Area (MPA) managers worldwide increasingly rely on stakeholder input to ensure that all views and values are considered. However, adequate management should not only reflect all of society’s views, but also be based on the best and most up-to-date knowledge.

<p>Reconciling economic priorities with biodiversity conservation remains a key challenge for EU Member States in their efforts to pursue sustainable growth. A workshop on "Linking Biodiversity to National Economic and Social Priorities in EU Member States" was held by Ecologic Institute and IEEP in Berlin (Germany) on 19 July 2017 to explore this challenge in more detail and identify opportunities for unlocking nature's potential to contribute to socio-economic objectives. The presentations are available for download.</p>

<p>As part of the REFRESH Food Waste 2017 Conference the Food Waste Innovation Incubator Day took place on 19 May 2017. The workshop brought together food waste stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, companies of the food industry and policy makers.</p>&#13;&#13;&#13;

<p>Despite extensive discussions, no agreement has been found regarding a common soil indicator for measuring Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in Germany. Major obstacles include low data availability and the effort needed to measure physical soil conditions regularly. During an expert workshop on 27 March 2017 in Berlin, a new and simpler approach, developed by Ecologic Institute in cooperation with the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA), was discussed to determine its suitability for LDN. The core idea of the approach is to measure land use and land use change, directly referring to soil quality in the sense of LDN. The workshop minutes are available for download.</p>&#13;