Biology

On 23rd May 2023 the EMODnet Steering Committee (SC) met in Brest, France, for its 18th meeting, hosted by Ifremer. At the 18th SC meeting, the EMODnet Secretariat announced a change in leadership, with Kate Larkin taking up the position of Head of Secretariat from April 2023 (read her welcome message here). Long-standing Head Jan-Bart Calewaert continues to work in the ocean data space, with more focus on global ocean data partnerships.

The consortium was recently informed of the funding approval for Phase V. The start date was May 10th, 2023, and the project will run for an initial two-year period until May 2025, after which there is a possibility of an automatic extension for another two years. As a wrap of Phase IV work, EMODnet Biology has recently published data from 47 additional datasets. This has increased the number of available occurrence records to 35.7 million, originating from a total of 1280 datasets.

The product, developed by the University of Sheffield, extends the EMODnet macrobenthos presence-absence product to map changes in macrobenthic communities over time, measured as species loss and gain and beta diversity.

EMODnet Biology reached the end of its Phase IV work cycle which resulted in more data being freely and openly available via the portal: users are now able to access to more than 40 Million occurrence records on various taxa distributed in European Seas and beyond.

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 27-28 March 2023, over 500 registered participants from 83 countries worldwide joined together for the OSL 3.0 hackathon, representing a diverse community of marine science practitioners, data scientists, IT professionals and innovators.

The International Ocean Data Conference - II will be held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France) on 20-21 March 2023 as a hybrid event The previous International Ocean Data Conference held in Poland 2022 concluded with new commitments and recommendations on achieving a “global ocean digital ecosystem” in the context of and as a contribution to the UN Ocean Decade. The IODC-II will focus on the implementation of those commitments and recommendations, and report on the problems faced, solutions found, lessons learned and challenges identified. Abstracts for oral presentations must be submitted before 15 November 2022.

Flanders Marine Institute, coordinator of EMODnet Biology, developed guidelines on how to report imaging data (focusing on the specific case of plankton imaging) in a standardised manner. The guidelines contain recommendations to users of imaging instruments on how to format their data for submission to biodiversity international data portals following the OBIS-ENV-DATA format, a Darwin Core (DwC) based approach to standardise biodiversity data. As a result of this work, and to showcase how to apply the best practices to a dataset that includes this associated media information, the Explore Your Shore dataset, available via EMODnet Biology was updated.

Join us at the third EMODnet Open Sea Lab Hackathon to address Ocean challenges in support of the EU Green Deal and the UN Agenda 2030. During a two-day open data virtual event (27-28 March 2023), participants will have the opportunity to explore and test the new features and advantages brought on by the unification of all seven thematics of EMODnet into one central portal.

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.

The Green Deal Data Space Foundation (GREAT) project aims at fostering an international cross-sectoral Community of Practice, which will shape and constitute the future Data Space through the provision and use of data. The project will deliver a roadmap for implementing and deploying the Green Deal Data Space, an infrastructure that will allow data providers and initiatives to openly share their data to tackle climate change and environmental challenge in a multidisciplinary manner. This introductory webinar will introduce the GREAT project and its goals, objectives and upcoming activities.

EMODnet works hard to be fit-for-purpose by taking into account user needs and requirements. Tell us how you have been experiencing your visit to the EMODnet Central Portal and how we could further improve the website’s user-friendliness and usability, by filling our feedback form. It will only take 5 minutes of your time.

The EMOD-network is excited to announce an EMODnet public webinar, “EMODnet Centralisation: One Ocean, One EMODnet" on 16 February 2023. The webinar will focus on the new features, capabilities and advantages of the EMODnet tools and services, following the unification of the 7 thematic portals into one central portal. Registration is free and open (see below).

Following the centralisation of EMODnet services, a successful webinar was organised to showcase and promote all the new features and capabilities of the EMODnet portal and how to use them. The webinar recording is now available on the EMODnet YouTube Channel   .

On 27 November - 1 December 2023, the full EMODnet partnership of > 120 organisations and wider stakeholders will gather in, Brussels, Belgium for the third edition of the EMDOnet Open Conference and Jamboree. Save-the-date for this interactive event. More news to follow soon.

This thematic unification simplifies access and enhances the EMODnet user experience. Central to the upgrade and major improvement is the release of the common map viewer, which offers the user easy and seamless access to discover, visualise and download marine data across seven thematics spanning marine environment and human activities and hundreds of data and data products from one place, powered by a searchable unified catalogue.

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!

The EMODnet Secretariat team wishes you peace, joy, good health and prosperity throughout the coming year. Thank you for your continued support and partnership. We look forward to working with you in 2023!

The EMODnet Steering Committee (SC) met with EMODnet coordinators and technical experts at its 17th meeting on 7 and 8 November 2022, with a key focus on the upcoming centralization of all EMODnet services into one unified EMODnet data service. Other topics included highlights from the seven EMODnet thematic lots and data ingestion, including latest outputs and partnerships planning for two upcoming EMODnet flagship events in 2023, namely the 3rd edition of the EMODnet Open Sea Lab hackathon, kicking off on 7 March 2023 and the EMODnet Open Conference & Jamboree, taking place in late Autumn 2023. The EC Marine Knowledge Expert Group joined the 17th EMODnet SC Open Session and also met for a second closed session on 29th November 2022.

EMODnet Biology invites users of marine data made publicly available by Flanders, Belgium including EMODnet Biology data hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), to participate in an OECD survey of Flemish marine data services. The objective of this survey published on the EMODnet Biology portal and organised in cooperation with a number of other Flemish marine data managers is to get a picture of the use and the social value of the data made available. This 10–15-minute survey is open until 6 December 2022.