Project Evaluation Meeting
Istanbul (Turkey), 15-16 May 2000

The first Project evaluation meeting was held in Istanbul (Turkey) on 15-16 May 2000 in order to:

	discuss the first year scientific activities of the project among its key scientists and external advisors,
	held an assessment meeting with the SfP Program representative (Dr. S. Michaelis, Assistant Director of the SfP Program) for her evaluation of the project activities since its beginning,
	have a Scientific Steering Committee meeting for planning the forthcoming field survey next autumn, and other activities.

Prof. Gennady Korotaev and Dr. Vladimir Vladimirov from Marine Hydrophysical Institute (NASU, Sevastopol, Ukraine), Academician Mikhail Vinogradov and Dr. Alexander Mikaelyan from P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (RAS, Moscow, Russia), Prof. Viktor Zaika from Institute of Biology of Southern Seas, (Sevastopol, Ukraine), Prof. Ruben Kosyan from P.P.Shirshov Institute of Oceanology (Gelendzhik, Russia), Dr .Alexandru Bologa from Romanian Marine Research Institute (Constanta, Romania), Dr. Snejana Moncheva from Institute of Oceanography (BAS, Varna, Bulgaria), Prof. George Metreveli from Tbilisi State University, (Tbilisi, Georgia), Prof. Temel Oguz, Prof Aysen Yilmaz and Prof. Ilkay Salihoglu from METU Institute of Marine Sciences, (Erdemli, Içel, Turkey), Mr. Gheorghe Constantin, Director (Ministry of water, forest and Environmental Protection, Bucuresti, Romania), Mr. Mario Antonov Doynov, Senior Expert Direction (Ministry of Education and Science, Sofia, Bulgaria), Prof. Hugh Ducklow from Virginia Institute of Marine Science (Virginia, USA), Mr. Mihail Ganchev (Executive Secretary of the IOC-BSRC, Sofia, Bulgaria), Dr. Susanne Michaelis, Associate Program Director, SfP (NATO, Brussels), Prof. James W. Murray from University of Washington School of Oceanography (Washington, USA), Mr. Peter Nakhaba, Head of the European Integration and International Projects Unit (Kiev, Ukraine), Prof. Emil Stanev from University of Sofia (Sofia, Bulgaria), Prof. Umit Unluata from IOC (Paris, France), Mrs. Erengul Ataberk, Chemical Engineer from Department of the Navigation Hydrography and Oceanography (Istambul, Turkey) met in Istambul for the First Project Evaluation Meeting of the ODBMS Black Sea Project during 15-16 May, 2000.

Key scientists from the Black Sea riparian countries as well as from the United States presented the major scientific achievements since the beginning of the Project.

Overview of the Activities and Scientific Achievements
Dr. S. Michaelis, Associate Programm Director, SfP emphasized main expectations of the NATO from this Project, and stressed crucial importance of dissemination of the Project results to the user community as widely as possible.

Prof. C. Saydam, Vise President of the Turkish Scientific and Research Council (TUBITAK), expressed their recognition of high standard of science performed within the framework of this Project and their willingness for providing f1nancial support in the future at the national level.

The session was continued with presentations on the overview of biological, chemical, modeling, and data management activities and main scientific achievements since the beginning of the Project.

End Users Views:
All representatives of the end users community expressed the interest of their countries on this project. They all agreed that practical applications and implementations of the Black Sea research to end users community were limited in the past, and this issue should be given a higher priority in the future. They also stressed the need for a follow-up project in the Black Sea after termination of this project.

Scientific Steering Committee (SSC)
On May 16, 2000 the SSC met to organize the future activities of the Project. Prof. I. Salihoglu pointed out that the goals and targets of the project, as stated in the Project plan, has been achieved quite successfully up to now.

The Report of the Workshop and Project Evaluation Meeting was published and distributed to all interested parties.

A CD describing the Project and related activities was released for the end-users and other interested parties.