The North Sea Ballast Water Opportunity Project (NSBWO) supports regional cohesion, innovation and future strategies in ballast water policies, management and addressing aquatic invasive species. The project focuses on coherence and harmonization of implementation of the IMO Ballast Water Management Convention on, including addressing such issues as monitoring and enforcement, innovation in scientific and technological solutions, and strategies to reduce ship-borne invasions.
The project is co-funded by the INTERREG IVB North Sea Region Programme of the European Regional Development Fund and is coordinated by the Royal Netherlands Institute for the North Sea (NOIZ), and the World Maritime University is a partner contributing to the development of strategies for collection of data, monitoring and modelling, and creation of an aquatic invasive species website and database, and technical opportunities of ballast water treatment and management for the North Sea.