EMSO EVOLVE: European Vision for Long-term Ocean Observations and Environmental Sustainability

EMSO EVOLVE positions EMSO ERIC to become Europe’s leading long-term ocean-observing body by 2035, moving from single sites observation to basin-scale observation and towards service-oriented operations. Its mission is sustained observation and analysis of Essential Ocean Variables from the seabed and along the water column. The strategy rests on five goals: improve sustainability and governance efficiency; excellent science and observation centrality; improvement of the upstream data services and downstream user-oriented services; and capacity building services via the EMSO Academy.

Objective 1 revises membership, governance and national commitments, harmonising nodes, enlarging the consortium and introducing a diversified business and funding plan with Blue-Economy indicators, strengthening EMSO’s position in national roadmaps and the European RI landscape. Objective 2 updates design to address basin-scale variability and four challenges (climate/ocean variability, geohazards, biodiversity loss, deep-ocean carbon), while deepening cooperation with sister RIs and modelling/satellite communities. Objective 3 upgrades e-infrastructure and services: implementing the Observatories of Seas Ontology, strengthening QC and metadata, deploying a modern data portal and virtual access, and enabling AI/HPC-ready workflows that are FAIR and interoperable with EMODnet, Copernicus and Digital Twin initiatives (e.g. EDITO and DestinE). Objective 4 institutionalises the EMSO Academy to map skills and deliver courses, webinars, summer schools and staff mobility, professionalising teams and expanding uptake.

WP2–WP7 combine governance reform, business planning, observing-system redesign, e-infrastructure modernisation, capacity building and targeted engagement, yielding: a better-structured RI landscape, new and better-used services, stronger policy relevance, reinforced ERA competitiveness, reduced footprint and durable sustainability.