Life Dream

02/10/2026

Last Friday we took LIFE DREAM to the European Researchers' Night in Bologna, and we spent the evening answering one question: what happens to the litter that ends up on the seabed?

Far below the surface, at depths of 200 to 1,000 metres, the Mediterranean hides white coral reefs. They are slow-growing, centuries-old animals, and marine litter and lost fishing nets are among their biggest threats.

At our stand we showed:
🪸 what deep coral reefs are, and why they matter
🎣 how we work with fishers, who help bring litter up from the seabed
⚙️ our pyrolysis prototype, which turns recovered plastic into marine fuel

8,350 people spent that evening at the CNR Research Area in Bologna for the Researchers' Night. Thank you to everyone who stopped by, asked questions and got curious with us. Science is better when it's shared.

📍 Notte delle Ricercatrici e dei Ricercatori – , CNR Research Area, Bologna
🔬 An activity by · V. Grande, M.L. Vitelletti, M. Prampolini, A. Capasso, I. Avacedo-Romo

For more information 👉 https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche , University of Naples Federico II , Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro , Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC .csic) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).

20/07/2026

How do you restore an ecosystem 600 meters deep? 🌊
No sunlight. No divers. No second chances. At that depth, you don't get to replant and hope, you need a system.
For 4 years, LIFE DREAM has been building one in the Mediterranean:
🪸 Active restoration — We deployed artificial reef structures on damaged deep reefs, giving corals and deep-sea species new homes to colonize.
🌊 Passive restoration — We removed marine litter and ghost nets from the seafloor, then stepped back. Nature does the rest.
⚓ Prevention — Fishers aren't the problem, they're the solution. Together we built a circular economy experiment that turns recovered marine litter into fuel — returned to the fishers themselves.
📊 Monitoring — Every action is tracked, measured and verified. Because you can't restore what you don't measure.
Four pillars, one loop: monitoring guides where we act, where we protect, and how we prevent.
No single action heals the deep sea. The system does. 🇮🇹🇪🇸🇬🇷
💾 Save this — it's how deep-sea restoration actually works
👉For more information -> https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche , University of Naples Federico II , Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro , Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC .csic) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).

16/06/2026

🌊 Fishing, scientific research and institutions working together for marine biodiversity.
On 5 June, in the Regno di Nettuno Marine Protected Area, at the Port of Forio (Ischia), the European project LIFE DREAM presented the results of four years of fishing for litter activities and circular economy experiment.

♻️ A journey that directly involved professional fishers, researchers, local institutions in an innovative model to combat marine litter and protect deep-sea ecosystems. At the heart of the project is a circular economy model: plastic recovered at sea during everyday fishing is transformed, through a low-temperature pyrolysis prototype, into second-generation fuel that is returned to the fishers.

🤝This meeting was a powerful opportunity to share lessons learned and translate them into concrete measures to support fishers and local communities, and to turning the circular economy from a concept into reality.

Our thanks to the Regno di Nettuno MPA and Federpesca for engaging the local fishing communities and making this work possible.

For more information 👉 https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche CNRsocial with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche Università Politecnica Marche, University of Naples Federico II Unina Federico II, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro Università degli Studi di Bari, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC Institut de Ciències del Mar) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).

MarineConservation blueeconomy

08/06/2026

05/06/2026

Grazie Sottosegretario per la sua importante partecipazione.

CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Area Marina Protetta Regno di Nettuno Comune di Forio Ministero dell’Agricoltura, della Sovranità alimentare e delle Foreste Corpo delle Capitanerie di Porto - Guardia Costiera GAL Pesca Parthenope Federparchi Europarc Italia Ministero dell'Ambiente e della Sicurezza Energetica Area Marina Protetta Punta Campanella Unina Federico II Net European Consulting Federpesca NCP LIFE Italia LIFE Programme

22/05/2026

That’s a wrap on the Terzo Forum Nazionale della Biodiversità in Naples! 🇮🇹

We are incredibly proud of our Life DREAM project team members, Federica Foglini and Giorgio Castellan, who took the stage together at the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II.

During the sessions on resources and technological innovation and ecological restoration, they brought key deep-sea insights to the national stage by presenting the outcomes of the LIFE DREAM project and the importance of mapping the seafloor, showing how high-precision underwater mapping is vital for protecting and restoring vulnerable marine ecosystems 🗺️🔍. Federica also joined Thursday's panel on the future legacy of the National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC).

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to discuss marine conservation with us. The work continues! 🌊💙

22/04/2026

Today, we don’t just celebrate the Earth—we study it and clean it from the depths up. 🌊🔋

At the Life DREAM project, waste is not the end of the road, but the beginning of a new one. We work side-by-side with fishers to recover the plastic suffocating our oceans and transform it into ecofuel.

The result? We return that resource to the fishers themselves to power their vessels. We are closing the loop, reducing the carbon footprint, and cleaning the home of thousands of species.

For more information 👉 https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche , University of Naples Federico II , Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro , Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC .csic) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).

08/04/2026

Mission DREAM2026 complete! Collaborating with icm-csic and -CNR, we’ve successfully maintained our monitoring cameras at the Seco de los Olivos seamount🌊

What did we do?
🔋Swapped out batteries
💾Retrieved months of precious data
🛠️Re-installed cameras to watch over our artificial eco-reefs

What’s next?
One year of data collection on our artificial eco-reefs to track coral restoration🪸

Science for our oceans.

Seguimos adelante y hasta el 2027!

25/03/2026

Did you know that restoring the deep sea requires its own unique set of "blueprints"? 📐🚢

At the REDRESS 2nd Annual Meeting in Barcelona, the LIFE DREAM team took the stage to exchange our experience in the deployment of artificial structures in deep environments with our fellow European initiatives.
It was three days of intense knowledge-sharing focused on the future of Europe's underwater ecosystems. We sat down with LIFE ECOREST, REDRESS, and LIFE MAPPER to talk strategy. 🤝
Our contribution? A deep dive into the logistics and costs of deploying artificial structures in deep-water environments. By sharing what we’ve learned, we’re helping the entire restoration community move faster and more efficiently.

For more information 👉 https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche , University of Naples Federico II , Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro , Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC .csic) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).

11/03/2026

🌊 LIFE DREAM meets the territory — Naples, Italy

Last week, researchers, institutions and local stakeholders gathered at the University of Naples Federico II for “LIFE DREAM meets the territory,” a dedicated event focused on the protection of deep coral reefs in the Gulf of Naples.

Under the theme “Deep coral reefs: Biodiversity, climate and conservation strategies,” the meeting shared the latest progress of the LIFE DREAM project and opened discussions on how science, policy and local communities can work together to safeguard vulnerable marine ecosystems.

Coordinated by CNR-ISMAR and funded by the EU LIFE Programme, LIFE DREAM promotes the restoration of deep-sea habitats across the Mediterranean — from coralligenous formations and cold-water corals to oyster reefs and black coral forests — combining research, marine litter removal and artificial reef installation.

The event highlighted the key role of the Campania region in ongoing mapping, monitoring and restoration activities, while strengthening dialogue between science, sustainable fisheries and society.

A shared step forward toward protecting one of the Mediterranean’s most valuable ecosystems 💙

For more information 👉 https://www.life-dream.eu/
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LIFE Dream is a project co-funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme (NCP LIFE Italia ). Coordinated by CNR Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche with partners in Italy (Univpm Università Politecnica delle Marche , University of Naples Federico II , Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro , Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn , Net European Consulting Federpesca), Spain (Institut de Ciències del Mar - CSIC .csic) and Greece (Enaleia, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research - HCMR, Region of Thessaly).