The European Marine Board has released a new report on sustainable management of the offshore renewable sector titled "Future Science Brief No. 9 European offshore renewable energy: Towards a sustainable future". While the report highlights the need for increased offshore renewable energy capacity, it also emphasizes the importance of managing the expansion sustainably and responsibly. Furthermore, the report notes that access to industry data remains a significant barrier for offshore renewable energy (ORE) researchers, and EMODnet is playing a significant role in bridging the gap.

The EMOD-network participated in force at the second edition of the International Ocean Data Conference (IODC-II) on 20-21 March 2023 where the recent EMODnet unification of services was presented, together with dialogues on EMODnet’s contribution to FAIR data and the Global Ocean Data Ecosystem, together with its active input to the UN Ocean Decade Data and Information Strategy. EMODnet was also well represented at the 27th session of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange" (IODE) of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, held back-to-back on 22-24 March 2023.

On 2 March European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) organised an online webinar presenting its new Strategy and the Roadmap for the implementation.

Every three years the EuroGOOS conference provides a forum for marine scientists and technologists developing operational oceanography products, and the users of these services including decision and policymakers as well as the private sector.

On 2 March 2023 at 10:00 CET, at the online launch event, the new EOOS Strategy  and EOOS Roadmap for Implementation   2023-2027 will be presented and discussed. Be part of those discussions and invite your country's ocean-observing community, stakeholders and high-level decision-makers to join this two-hour event.

On 17th February 2023 the EMODnet Secretariat and wider representatives attended the first Annual Forum of the Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030" (Mission Ocean).

On 26 January 2023, the EMODnet Secretariat hosted an online workshop on the added value and benefits of the EMODnet Sea-basin Checkpoint (SBCP) exercises that took place across six sea basins in 2013-2018. The workshop brought together more than 50 experts including EMODnet Sea-basin Checkpoint Coordinators, partners and expert panel members, EMODnet thematic and data ingestion Coordinators and representatives, EMODnet associated partners, the European Commission and wider invited experts from the European Ocean Observing, marine data and user community.

EMODnet invites inputs to a public survey on the benefits of the SBCP which remains open until 2 February 2023!

On 18-20 January 2023 EMODnet Chemistry participated in a workshop of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) on the revision of the format for marine litter data in the ICES Environmental Database. EMODnet Chemistry brought its expertise having developed the EMODnet micro-litter data format in collaboration with the MSFD Technical Group on Marine Litter (TGML) since 2017. Marine litter data trawls collected by ICES are already available via EMODnet Chemistry. The hybrid event took place in Copenhagen (Denmark) and online.

Standardised, integrated and validated data on contaminants freely available on EMODnet Chemistry were used for a new study recently published in Marine Pollution Bulletin that focuses on the Eastern Mediterranean. The paper is about a new method to improve the quality control of data on pollutants in marine sediments.

To improve the assessment of marine pollution, EMODnet Chemistry has undertaken a thorough revision of the questionnaire used to obtain information on sampling, data analysis methods, and validation procedures for contaminants in seawater, sediment and biota. The revised questionnaire was recently sent out to the network of laboratories that provide data to EMODnet Chemistry in order to improve and update the available information. Despite advances in legislation, there is still relatively little implementation of the requirements of the current directives and protocols.

From 26 to 28 October 2022, EMODnet Chemistry was in Constanța (Romania) at the hybrid conference MARBLUE 2022 - Blue Growth: Challenges and Opportunities for the Black Sea. The aim of this international conference was to contribute to the protection of the Black Sea by supporting sustainable development in a multidisciplinary way. Free and open access to aggregated, standardised, validated data and data products for the Black Sea is available in the form of regional and global data collections and maps for eutrophication, contaminants, and marine litter through the EMODnet Chemistry web data portal.

This event aims to mobilise a wide range of stakeholders to join the Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030”, and particularly the Atlantic-Arctic lighthouse. The event will focus on the political commitments to implement the Mission and agree on concrete measures and actions in the Atlantic-Arctic basins to protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity, and boost coastal resilience. This follows the wider dialogues on Mission Ocean as part of the EU Research and Innovation Days which took place on 28-29 September 2022.

In 2021, the Commission for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea, also known as the Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), asked all countries that are signatories to the Helsinki Convention to submit 2016-2021 data from national coastal litter monitoring to EMODnet Chemistry. Since then, EMODnet Chemistry ingested, harmonised and validated data collected between 2016 and 2021 on 141 beaches in 9 countries. The data will be used to produce the beach litter indicator in the third State of the Baltic Sea' holistic assessment report (HOLAS).

EMODnet Chemistry Coordinator OGS, Italy was an author of the presentation titled “Coastline Litter in Europe - Data for policy” given by Georg Hanke of the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) at the latest edition of the 7th International Marine Debris Conference which took place on 18-23 September 2022 in Busan, Republic of Korea. This follows a long and successful collaboration between EMODnet Chemistry and JRC to provide the most comprehensive marine litter database in Europe. The presentation was part of the conference general topic “Stories and lessons from around the world: how monitoring can help develop measures to combat marine litter”.

A key user of EMODnet Human Activities vessel density maps is Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency supporting EU Member States and Schengen Associated Countries in managing the EU’s external borders and fighting cross-border crime. The EMODnet’s vessel density maps, a data product that was first released in 2019 has been kept up to date ever since. Frontex applications combine EMODnet map services with other internal and external map services for supporting detection of abnormal vessel behaviour.

The Sea Level Rise Conference 2022 on 17-18 October will bring together researchers, stakeholders and policy professionals at Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista (Venice, Italy) to exchange on regional to local sea level change in Europe. The conference is organized by the Knowledge Hub on Sea Level Rise, a joint effort between JPI Climate and JPI Oceans, in collaboration with its Italian partners and with endorsement by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

DG MARE has identified smart specialisation strategies (S3) as a key tool for implementing the Communication on a Sustainable Blue Economy (SBE), as an integral part of the European Green Deal (EGD). DG MARE has set up the S3 thematic platform for SBE, to support blue economy interregional partnerships/value chains. The promotion of best practices, lessons learned and future perspectives is extremely valuable in fine-tuning the support provided by the S3 thematic platform for SBE.

EMODnet Chemistry has provided expert input to a consultation on a new EC initiative on ‘Chemical safety – better access to chemicals data for safety assessments’. This initiative aims to improve access to chemicals data by removing technical and administrative obstacles, to make it easier to access and use all available data and will increase transparency. EMODnet is well-placed to contribute as a leading EU marine data service, with EMODnet Chemistry providing standardised, harmonised and FAIR marine water quality data, amongst other thematic areas spanning pollution, eutrophication, marine litter and more. Read more about the initiative and EMODnet Chemistry’s response in the link below.

The summary for the UN Ocean Conference (27 June to 1 July 2022) side event on “Marine Data Interoperability”, that was co-organised by the EMODnet Secretariat, is now available online. Check it out!

Outcomes from the Scientific Event that took place in May/June 2022 will be highlighted at the Ministerial Event in Washington, D.C. the week of July 12-14 2022 (streamed live), which will also feature Ministerial interventions and the signing of the All-Atlantic Ocean Research & Innovation Alliance Declaration.