The Blue Economy and the Black Sea: Research Trends and Prospects for Scientific Cooperation in the Black Sea Region

Purpose This paper identifies the current state and prospects for scientific cooperation in the field of the Blue Economy in the Black Sea Region. Design/methodology/approach We conducted a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications indexed in one of the largest international citation databases of peer-reviewed literature (Scopus) for the past 5 years. The following terms were selected: Blue Economy, Ocean Economy, Blue Growth, Ecosystem-Based Management and Marine Spatial Planning. For the detailed search query, we adopted the classification of the traditional and emerging sectors of the Ocean Economy, developed by the OECD, and integrated relevant keywords (equivalents) from the marine economy framework classification of the EU, US and China Blue Economy sectors. Findings The results show that non-regional actors (like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada) have been actively involved in the research agenda in the field of the Blue Economy, inter alia in the Black Sea Region, while the representation of the regional stakeholders (in particular, the BSEC Member States) is relatively low. The majority of the countries in the Black Sea Region are involved in the common scientific research agenda related to the Blue/Ocean Economy, including its traditional and emerging marine (ocean-based) sectors. Ecosystem-Based Management is underrepresented as a research area. The Black Sea Region significantly lacks academic-corporate collaboration in the field of the Blue Economy. Originality/value The current studies related to the development of the Blue Economy as a scientific area of research specifically in the Black Sea Region are underrepresented in the academic literature. The study allowed us to identify the countries from the Black Sea Region that are leading in terms of the research related to the Blue/Ocean Economy, as well as determine research trends for international cooperation related to the development of Blue/Ocean Economy in the Black Sea Region.