ConnectinGEO’s primary goal is to link existing coordinated Earth Observation networks with science and technology (S&T) communities, the industry sector and the GEOSS and Copernicus stakeholders. The aim is to facilitate a broader and more accessible knowledge base to support the needs of the GEO Societal Benefit Areas (SBAs) and their users. A broad range of subjects from climate, natural resources and raw materials, to the emerging UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be addressed. A tangible outcome of the project will be a prioritized list of critical gaps within the European Union in observations and the models that translate observations into practice-relevant knowledge. The prioritized list will include the research activities required to address these gaps. Ultimately, this will increase coherency of European observation networks, increase the use of Earth observations for assessments and forecasts and inform the planning for future observation systems through a sustainable approach that will survive beyond the end of this project. ConnectinGEO has 4 major objectives: a) Enable a European Network of Earth Observation Networks (ENEON) including space-based, airborne and in-situ observations networks. b) Provide a methodology to convert the knowledge needs into a coherent observation and measurement compendium for ENEON strategy and development. c) Apply the ConnectinGEO methodology to identify and assess the priority of gaps. d) Open the results of the project and exploit them beyond the project end.

The overall objective of the project is to develop a virtual environment equipped with FAIR multi-disciplinary data and services to support marine and freshwater scientists and stakeholders restoring healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters. The AquaINFRA virtual environment will enable the target stakeholders to store, share, access, analyse and process research data and other research digital objects from their own discipline, across research infrastructures, disciplines and national borders leveraging on EOSC and the other existing operational dataspaces. Besides supporting the ongoing development of the EOSC as an overarching research infrastructure, AquaINFRA is addressing the specific need for enabling researchers from the marine and freshwater communities to work and collaborate across those two domains. A specific goal of AquaINFRA will be to develop an EOSC based research infrastructure combining the marine and freshwater domains, which will include the development of a cross domain and cross-country search and discovery mechanism as well as building services for spatio-temporal analysis and modelling through Virtual Research Environments. A set of strategic use cases including a Pan-European use case as well as more focused use cases in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea will provide the setting for co-designing and testing services in the targeted research communities. The AquaINFRA project results are expected to contribute to the utilisation of EOSC as an overarching research infrastructure enabling collaboration across the domains of marine and freshwater scientists and stakeholders working on restoring of healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters.

amJERICO-RI: Joint European Research Infrastructure of Coastal Observatories – a system of systems strengthening the European network of coastal observatories providing a powerful and structured European Research Infrastructure (RI) dedicated to observe and monitor the complex marine coastal seas and to: (i) provide services for the delivery of high quality environmental data, (ii) access to solutions and facilities as services for researchers and users, (iii) create product prototypes for EU marine core services and users, (iv) support excellence in marine coastal research to better answer societal and policy needs. JERICO-S3 will provide a state-of-the-art, fit-for-purpose and visionary observational RI, expertise and high-quality data on European coastal and shelf seas, supporting world-class research, high-impact innovation and a window of European excellence worldwide. It will significantly enhance the current value and relevance of the JERICO-RI, through the implementation of the science and innovation strategy elaborated as part of the JERICO-NEXT project. JERICO-S3 is mainly targeting a more science integrative approach to better observe the coastal ecosystem, raising up the scientific excellence, with consideration of the regional and local ecosystems; the preliminary development of an e-infrastructure in support to scientists and users by offering access to dedicated services; progress on the design of the RI and its strategy for sustainability. Major user-driven improvements will be realised in terms of observing the complexity of coastal seas and continuous observation of the biology, access to facilities, data and services, best practices and performance indicators, innovative monitoring strategies, cooperation with other European RIs (EuroARGO, EMSO, AQUACOSM, DANUBIUS, ICOS, EMBRC, LIFEWATCH) and international scientific communities, industry and other stakeholders, and aligning strategy with COPERNICUS/CMEMS, EMODNET and GEO/GEOSS.

MINKE will integrate key European marine metrology research infrastructures, to coordinate their use and development and propose an innovative framework of “quality of oceanographic data” for the different European actors in charge of monitoring and managing the marine ecosystems. MINKE proposes a new vision in the design of marine monitoring networks considering two dimensions of data quality, accuracy and completeness, as the driving components of the quality in data acquisition. This new vision will be framed in a quintuple helix model of innovation, incorporating all the elements involved in the monitoring network design: ● the context (ocean health), identifying the Essential Ocean variables (EOVs) as the key parameters to monitor ● the civil society (NGO, Makers community, Social media and Citizen Science platforms) as the key actors to ensure data completeness ● the academia researching new methods to ensure the accuracy and the global quality of the final products, developing tools for integrating the information of top-qualified oceanographic instruments and low-cost instrumentation. ● the industry improving the performance of the observations with new instrumentation, data-transmission systems and cost-effective technologies ● the governments that provide the legal and socio-economic frameworks to develop the proposed network The present proposal, through the different Integration Activities (Networking, Transnational-Virtual Access and Joint Research), aims to lay the groundwork for creating the necessary synergies among the different involved actors in the quintuple helix model of innovation, creating a new community with complementary capabilities for Ocean & Coastal Observation, that will facilitate the transition towards a blue growth socio-economic system.

BRIDGES (Bringing together Research and Industry for the Development of Glider Environmental Services) will provide a necessary tool for further understanding, improved monitoring, and responsible exploitation of the marine environment while assuring its long-term preservation. This new tool, a robust, cost-effective, re-locatable, versatile and easily-deployed ocean glider, will support autonomous, long-term in-situ exploration of the deep ocean at large spatio-temporal scales. The sole European underwater glider: SeaExplorer will be modularized, new sensors will be developed, and the operational methodology will be modified, such that new horizons of service will be opened. It will be improved by: 1) adapting for deep basins (up to 5000 m), 2) implementing a novel payload architecture to increase autonomy and to accommodate the range of sensing capabilities needed, and 3) integrating the associated control support system for single and networked operations (mission behaviour, data management, planning, communications). The glider’s sensing capabilities will be enhanced. The main modules are planned for: 1) environmental monitoring for facilitating the effective implementation of an ecosystem-based management under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, 2) the oil and gas industry, and 3) the deep sea mining industry. In order to achieve the technological objectives and meet service requirements, an open dialogue between stakeholders will be developed. The basic premises of the present call “Delivering sub-sea technologies for new services at sea-BG-06-2014,” are answered thoroughly: the ability to execute unmanned underwater operations, to operate in the deep ocean, and to assess the environmental impact of the maritime economy. In addition, this project will realize and promote the creation of collaborations among sensor and platform manufacturers, oil and gas and mining companies, public health and safety departments, and scientific and engineering experts.