MARITIME AGENDA AS AN ANCHOR OF RESEARCH COLLABORATION IN THE BALTIC SEA BASIN

From time immemorial, the oceans, seas and their coasts have been the cradle of human civilization and still play a vital role in the lives of millions of people, indirectly affecting all of humanity. The phenomenon of coastalization suggests that our reliance on and dependence from marine and maritime sectors will grow, and their sustainable development is a topical challenge. The Blue growth strategy addresses this issue on a Pan-European level, fostering research and innovation with regards to marine environments. Building on the conceptual grounds of knowledge and innovation studies, we hypothesize that countries and regions within a common sea basin will achieve the highest efficiency in research collaboration and knowledge exchange. By using bibliometric data from the Scopus abstract and citation database, we track scholarly output, co-authorship, and citations in the framework of the Blue growth strategy affiliated to the institutions of the Baltic Sea basin. The visualization of the research landscape is done in VOSviewer software at the level of bibliographic coupling, cocitation, and co-authorship relations. Our study evaluates maritime research networks and knowledge flows between the coastal cities of the Baltic Sea basin countries. Findings suggest that sea-related challenges act as an integrating factor in research, driving cooperative initiatives in achieving sustainable development at the macro-region with that solving national objectives.