The adoption of ADRICOSM Pilot Project as a Type II Initiative at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg in 2002 was the start of the ADRICOSM Initiative.

Within this Partnership, four new projects have started to be built following the ADRICOSM Pilot Project:

1. ADRICOSM STAR ADRICOSM integrated river basin and costal zone: Montenegro coaSTal ARea and Bojana river catchment
2. ADRICOSM-EXTension: (ADRICOSM-EXT) - the enlargement of ADRICOSM pilot Project to Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia Montenegro M methodology in the Pula Bay, Croatia
3. NEretva River delta Environmental requalification and Sustainable development (NERES) - the re-qualification of the delta of Neretva River, Croatia.
4. ADRICOSM PULA BAY (italian language)

On April 2004, ADRICOSM Partnership has been inserted as “building block” in the Mediterranean Component of the EU Water Initiative.

The ADRICOSM Partnership is funded from the Italian Ministry of Environment, Territory and Sea and the Italian Ministry of Foreigner Affairs.
The main objectives of the ADRICOSM Partnership are:

• efficiently organize, evaluate and coordinate multinational research, development and implementation programs, which can advance the understanding, monitoring and predictive capabilities in the Adriatic Sea area for the establishment of integrated coastal areas and river basin management systems
• consolidate the monitoring and prediction system by involving a large range of intermediate and end users of the research products.

By fulfilling these main objectives the ADRICOSM Partnership will:

• promote transboundary co-operation between riparian Adriatic-Ionian Countries
• increase the cooperation between scientists and policy makers by developing policy and technical guidance to advance toward sustainable development of the coastal areas of the Adriatic-Ionian basin
• promote sustainable economic growth, environmental protection of marine coastal areas of the Adriatic-Ionian basin
• develop the needed scientific base and technology for the mitigation/adaptation strategy to environmental changes and threats due to anthropogenic pressures in the Adriatic-Ionian basin
• organise and promote the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in the Adriatic-Ionian region
• consolidate the monitoring and prediction system for an efficient and cost effective provision of environmental data to public agencies and policy makers as a sub-regional component of the European GMES (Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security) initiative.