Overview   Policy

The EuroGEO initiative, Europe's contribution to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), along with the EuroGEOSec project, has launched a crucial survey to gather stakeholder support and insights. The survey aims to inform the establishment of a EuroGEO Secretariat, which will enhance cooperation among Earth Observation (EO) private sectors, stakeholders, and research institutions in the EU. This Secretariat will also ensure continuous collaboration with other regional GEOs and the GEO Secretariat. Complete the survey before the deadline on March 8th, 2024, to have your voice heard.

EMODnet participated in the first Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership Symposium, held on February 13-14, 2024, which launched its second call for funding with the event bringing together diverse stakeholders to promote the transformation towards a sustainable blue economy.

At the first joint webinar on ‘Data and information management and sharing in the Decade: why, who, what and how?’ co-organised by the Decade Coordination Office for Ocean Data Sharing (DCO-ODS) and IODE on 31 January, Vicente Fernandez (EMODnet Secretariat), highlighted EMODnet as an important regional node contributing to ocean data sharing and interoperability to the global ocean data ecosystem, and its contribution, together with Copernicus Marine Service, to the establishment of the public infrastructure backbone for the European digital representation of the Ocean.

On 28th February 2024, EMODnet hosted a webinar titled “EMODnet for Horizon Europe and EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters.” This invitation-only webinar was attended by over 95 participants representing at least 45 EU projects. Organised by the EMODnet Secretariat, Data Ingestion and thematics, in collaboration with DG MARE and CINEA, the webinar focused on how EMODnet can support European Research and Innovation (R&I) projects, including the use of EMODnet’s marine knowledge in EU R&I, demonstrations of the EMDOnet Data Ingestion workflow, and guidance on how R&I projects can optimize the collection, curation and submission of FAIR data and metadata to EMODnet services, and its large userbase.

Discover the latest insights on how EMODnet's marine data and data product offerings can serve as a foundation for essential ocean knowledge and the crucial role of EMODnet's Data Ingestion service in supporting seamless data submission to both the European and global ocean data ecosystem, at the upcoming “EMODnet for Horizon Europe and EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters projects" webinar on February 28, 2024, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Aimed at representatives of European Horizon Europe and EU Mission Ocean projects collecting in situ marine data, the webinar focuses on streamlining data submission processes, guiding participants in data and metadata collection, and optimizing data flow into EMODnet. For more details and to express your interest in participating, please send an email to: secretariat@emodnet.eu.

On 26-27 September 2023, EMODnet together with the European Commission, DG MARE, organised an online workshop on ‘’EMODnet Marine Data for Coastal Tourism’’. The main objective of the workshop was to facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue and share experiences from key coastal tourism stakeholders regarding their in situ data needs, existing and emerging uses of EMODnet and wider open source marine environmental and human activities data for coastal tourism operations and applications, and opportunities for private-public data sharing, including optimization of dataflows and EMODnet data ingestion as a public service supporting the European ocean observation and data collection community to enable Findable, Accessible, Reusable and Interoperable (FAIR) data.

At the dawn of its 15th year in business, EMODnet Chemistry celebrates the best results of the past year with EMODnet stakeholders. A full article gives key achievements and a forward look, which sees the confirmation of the same consortium at the helm of EMODnet Chemistry for the next two years, coordinated by OGS.

The European Commission has initiated a public consultation on the evaluation of the Nitrates Directive, which aims to protect water bodies from nitrate pollution caused by agricultural practices. The consultation, open until March 8, 2024, assesses whether the directive is still effective in promoting sustainable agriculture and food security, especially considering changing environmental conditions. The evaluation will focus on adaptation of farmers, support for new agricultural practices, and promotion of nutrient recycling. Key objectives include simplification, reducing burdens and costs, and aligning with global biodiversity goals. The Nitrates Directive sets limits on fertilizers and encourages good farming practices to prevent harmful effects of excessive nitrates, such as water pollution and economic losses. The evaluation aims to ensure diverse stakeholder interests are considered across the EU.

Starting in this edition, we are launching a news section dedicated to EMODnet's key role in the European Digital Twin Ocean (DTO). EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Service collaborate in the EDITO-Infra project which is upgrading EC marine data services to provide the backbone infrastructure to the EU DTO. At the heart of EDITO-Infra's technical advancements lies the establishment of a comprehensive data lake. This innovative feature seamlessly integrates both EMODnet and Copernicus Marine products. Leveraging cutting-edge, open-source technologies from the cloud computing industry, the data lake offers robust and scalable object storage, coupled with high-performance computing (HPC) resources. This combination is pivotal for enabling on-demand data analysis and the creation of sophisticated 'what-if' scenarios. Stay tuned for more information.

On 26-27 September 2023, EMODnet together with the European Commission, DG MARE, organised an online workshop on ‘’EMODnet Marine Data for Coastal Tourism’’. The main objective of the workshop was to facilitate cross-sectoral dialogue and share experiences from key coastal tourism stakeholders regarding their in situ data needs, existing and emerging uses of EMODnet and wider open source marine environmental and human activities data for coastal tourism operations and applications, and opportunities for private-public data sharing, including optimization of dataflows and EMODnet data ingestion as a public service supporting the European ocean observation and data collection community to enable Findable, Accessible, Reusable and Interoperable (FAIR) data.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) has released the Call for Abstracts for the Annual Science Conference 2024 in Gateshead, UK (meeting taking place 9-12 September 2024). This year, EMODnet has teamed up with ICES for a joint session "Theme session J: Moving the latest developments from machine learning and AI closer to exploiting mountains and lakes of data" This session is open for abstracts from the ICES and wider community, including those that demonstrate connection between ICES and EMODnet. The deadline for abstract submission is 22 March 2024.

The EDITO initiative, powered by EDITO-Infra, extends an invitation to ocean twinning projects and national initiatives throughout Europe. The primary focus of this initiative is to enhance the capabilities of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO). Successful participants will have a unique opportunity to showcase their work at the high-level dedicated session during the Digital Ocean Forum 2024.

The University of Girona used EMODnet datasets in the Horizon EU project Blue-Paths, to develop a dashboard demonstrator with the goal to inform the wider audience in a dynamic manner about the geographic and social, ecological and economic characteristics of the high-potential areas for offshore wind energy in the Spanish sea space.

The European Maritime Day (EMD) 2024 will be a fully-fledged physical event, in Svendborg, Denmark on 30-31 May 2024. Registration will open soon. In the meantime, you can already apply for “EMD In My Country 2024 events” which will also take place all over Europe from 1 April till 31 October 2024. Are you ready to submit your event(s) for 2024? Fill in the online application form before 29 February 2024 and bring European Maritime Day 2024 to your country!

On 1 December 2023, the EMODnet Steering Committee met in Brussels to exchange on EMODnet operations, strategic partnerships and plan upcoming events and activities in 2024, ranging from the EMODnet webinar for EU Mission and Horizon Europe on 28th February 2024 to EMODnet’s contribution to the UN Ocean Decade Conference 2024 and Digital Ocean Forum 2024. The meeting took place directly after the EMODnet Open Conference and Jamboree 2023.

The Digital Twins of The Ocean (DITTO) program invites experts to contribute to a groundbreaking initiative integrating marine and satellite data with AI and high-performance computing. Help create sustainable ocean solutions and drive innovative digital twinning projects. Apply now to be part of a diverse team transforming our understanding and management of the oceans. Deadline: 15 January 2024

Organised for the first time in 2024, European Ocean Days 4-8 March 2024 will be a week of events related to European maritime topics. It will include the EU Mission Ocean and Waters Forum, events on future priorities for Europe’s Seas, BlueInvest bringing together blue innovators and investors as well as ocean literacy activities and more. EMODnet will be there. Will you? Follow the link below for more information and registration.

EMODnet has signed the COP 28 Ocean Declaration which calls upon the international community for more sustained ocean observation and marine knowledge for “the science we need for the ocean we want”. EMODnet partners Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ, Belgium), Ifremer (France) are also amongst the signatories, together with EuroGOOS, EMB, POGO and others. The COP 28 Declaration is in-line with the EMODnet Call to Action released on 30th November 2023 that calls for sustainable and appropriate funding for EMODnet and the wider marine knowledge value chain. EMODnet experts from the EMODnet Steering Committee also contributed to a series of workshops and reports by the UN Global Compact on offshore renewable energy and maritime spatial planning. The final outcomes were presented on 4 December 2023 at a COP28 hybrid event “The role of Industry in the Ocean Decade Data Enterprise” with panelists from UN Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition, the UN OD Coordination Office for Data Sharing, FUGRO, Van Oord and more.

The European Commission, in collaboration with the European Investment Bank (EIB), is launching the new pilot scheme ‘EU Blue Champions’. It will be supported by the BlueInvest platform. Through this new initiative, the EIB Advisory Services, in collaboration with the EIB Projects Directorate, will provide financial advisory to selected projects in the blue economy.

The 7 thematic Coordinators of EMODnet then presented the latest EMODnet service offer, which includes pan-European data and data products across hundreds of parameters spanning the marine environment, namely bathymetry, biology, chemistry, geology, physics and seabed habitats, and human activities at sea. Finally, a Panel including wider stakeholders discussed the value of EMODnet, including perspectives from the Copernicus Marine Service, Regional Sea Conventions, the private sector, EU Member States, EMODnet associated partners and the winner of the EMODnet Open Sea Lab 3.0 Hackathon, and more.