The fourth General Assembly of the EU’s Mission Atlantic project to detect and evaluate current and future risks covering climate change, natural hazards and human activities on Atlantic ecosystems has been held in the city of Horta, Faial island, Azores (Portugal), in the headquarters of the partner Institute for Research in Marine Sciences (OKEANOS) of the University of the Azores.
The annual event has provided an added-value opportunity for partners from adjacent continents that frame the Atlantic Ocean to come together for a week of intense exchange on research carried out within the framework of the project, including workshops to align ongoing tasks and promote the results achieved to date after two years of work.
The work agenda undertaken covered three key aspects of the project: knowledge exchange in which scientists and experts gave keynote lectures, sharing their research and innovative discoveries, providing a platform to disseminate results and inspire new actions.
The other two aspects were networking and collaboration, structured networking events, social gatherings and informal discussions stimulated and fostered connections and collaboration between scientists, and workshops and practical sessions that offered participants opportunities to deepen specific scientific topics, acquire new skills and explore practical applications.
PLOCAN contributes as partner to the Mission Atlantic project from a technological and operational perspective through its fleet of autonomous marine vehicles, in order to increase in a efficient and sustainable manner the in-situ observation capabilities of essential oceanographic variables (EOVs) of interest required to develop and systematically apply Integrated Ecological Assessments (IEA) at Atlantic basin scale, which are object of the project to improve the understanding of the ecosystems of the Atlantic Ocean and the factors of change that affect marine biodiversity and ocean resources.
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The Mission Atlantic project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 862428.
