Our Ocean 2019 - Youth Leadership Summit in Norway (Scholarship Available)

The Our Ocean conferences were initiated by Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014, with the aim to put oceans on the foreign policy agenda, and create a platform where leaders from government, business and civil society meet on an equal footing to promote action and innovation for clean, healthy and productive oceans. The intended theme for the “Our Ocean Youth Leadership Summit” is “Co-creating the Sustainable Blue Economy”. Following Norway’s global leadership in integrated ocean management, the summit programming will intend to inspire, inform, and empower participants to build holistic solutions that better balance the needs of society, industry and the ocean environment.

The Oslo conference will highlight the importance of knowledge as the basis of the actions and policies to ensure sustainable future economic growth. It will emphasize integrated management of sea and coastal areas as the key to protection and sustainable use of the oceans

In preparation for themed breakout sessions, Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) and UiT the Arctic University of Norway will coordinate online bootcamps to frame the discussion and build foundational competency in the topics at hand, including eco-tourism, fishery management, the circular economy, amongst others.

Across the board, program content will encourage youth to take a scientific approach to marine challenges in alignment with the UN Ocean Decade for Science. Specifically, panels will focus on the importance of leveraging data borne from science and technology to create informed ocean decisions and policy solutions that maximize output while minimizing harm.

The conference will build partnerships between government, industry, science and civil society, putting knowledge, technology and finance into action to meet the challenges facing the ocean and enable production and protection to go hand in hand so that the ocean can continue to provide for the needs of future generations.

This year 100 applicants will be selected for the scholarship* to attend the summit. The results will be announced on August 1, 2019.
*Scholarships to cover travel expenses may become available

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Benefit:

Participants will leave the summit with an enriched understanding of the systemic challenges of ocean health and how they can bridge the needs of multiple stakeholders across government, the private sector and academia to spur ocean action and be agents of positive change.
Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA) aims at covering, for each participant, 3-night accommodation in a shared twin rooms from October 22 to October 25, 2019.
If the selected candidate requires a visa to travel to Norway, a visa letter will be provided. However, visa costs will not be covered.
Coffee breaks with drinks and light snacks and lunches are offered during the length of the conference. A buffet lunch will be served on October 23 and 24, 2019.
Non-alcoholic drinks and finger foods will be served during the cocktail reception on October 22, 2019 (location TBC).

Requirement:

Problem-solver, sustainability champion, students, young professional below 35 years old
Have an interest in sustainability and contributing in solving our planet’s greatest challenges: ocean acidification, marine pollution, habitat destruction and overfishing to name a few.
It is not mandatory to already be an ocean advocate and educated on ocean challenges. A series of online bootcamps (webinars) will be conducted in the lead up to the summit to build foundation for the bootcamp.

Selection criteria:

Background - the extent to which an applicant’s area of focus professionally or academically is relevant to the conference themes.
Impact - the extent to which the applicant idea solves a real problem in the ocean sector and would provide overall benefits to society.
Feasibility - how realistic is the proposed commitment/idea/solution.
Scalability - how can the idea be scaled to new markets and/ or new industries.
Enthusiasm - how much passion and enthusiasm is shown in the application.
Vision - the extent to which the commitment aligns with the goals and values of Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA).
Originality - how forward-thinking is the proposed commitment/idea/solution.
English proficiency - applicant capacity to articulate an idea in English
Leadership - applicant demonstrate strong communication skills and potential for for leadership.
Ocean Impact - the level of interest and engagement in sustainability as it pertains to ocean health. Please ensure to fill in all fields as required (fields marked * are mandatory). Incomplete applications will not be consider