ADSWIM and WATERCARE Projects Meet Kids and Youth: The Challenge of Bringing theWorld of Research to School to Merge Research, Education and Communication

The transfer of communication and knowledge from science and research to the generalpublic is a paramount step to raise people's awareness about environmental issues and their negativeand positive impacts on each of us. Many projects and initiatives seek to raise awareness amongcitizens, with particular attention to young people, about the importance of maintaining cleanand healthy oceans. With this paper, we aim to present the successful communication initiativesdeveloped during two Interreg projects, AdSWiM andWATERCARE, with schools and educationalorganisations on the local and national levels in Italy and Croatia. Both projects make a specialeffort to realize dedicated communication strategies with the objective of raising the awareness ofenvironmental topics and issues among young people (i.e., students of different school grades) andteachers. The promotion of ocean literacy among students is crucial, as children and young peoplerepresent the future citizens and consumers who will develop attitudes and make decisions that willinevitably affect the environment.