An extensive and multidisciplinary public-private consortium made up of 55 members linked to the observation, data management and ocean modeling celebrated in Brussels the EuroSea project Kick-off Meeting, which responds to an innovation action which receives 12.6 million € from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.
The EuroSea coordinator, Dr. Toste Tanhua, from GEOMAR – Helmholtz (Kiel) highlighted that “its objective is to reach a better combination between the existing capabilities in European ocean observation, to fill in existing gaps and to make the resulting data and information available to all users more efficiently and appropriately according to both generic and specific needs”.
The EuroSea consortium consists of scientific institutions and private organizations from 13 European countries, Brazil and Canada. Moreover, it includes international reference institutions and networks such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO), the European Marine Board (EUMarineBoard) and the European delegation of the Global Ocean Observation System – EuroGOOS. EuroSea’s strategic links with industry in different sectors of the marine and maritime fields will enable to develop ocean technologies and appropriate services during the implementation of the project. EuroSea will improve ocean observations and operational forecasting services, increasing the quality and usability of the data collected, based partly on the achievements of the Horizon 2020 – AtlantOS project.
EuroSea contributes directly to the United Nations Sustainable Development Framework Goals (SDG), the United Nations Decade 2021-2030 for Ocean Science and Sustainable Development and the G7 Initiative on the Future of the Seas and Oceans.
PLOCAN aims to contribute to EuroSea by implementing new technologies aimed at a more efficient and sustainable ocean observation. PLOCAN will lead a working group on marine autonomous vehicles, which will involve institutions such as the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) of the University of Bremen, the National Oceanography Centre of the United Kingdom (NOC) and the University of Oporto, which will contribute to the execution of work package 3 and which concerns to the integration of European ocean observation networks, as stated in the definition and governance of EuroGOOS for the implementation of the Global European Ocean Observation System (EOOS).
The EuroSea project Kick-off Meeting was celebrated in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) and it was organized by GEOMAR and EuroGOOS. EuroSea is funded by the European Union within the framework of the Reference Initiative on the Future of the Seas and Oceans, under grant agreement 862626.
More information about EuroSea available on its website and Twitter.
