Overview   Data

IMDIS 2026 will take place in Split, Croatia, from 30 November to 3 December 2026, organised by the Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries (IOF) in collaboration with SeaDataNet AISBL, IFREMER, MARIS, NOC and INGV, many of whom are long-standing EMODnet partners. The conference will bring together experts from across the marine data community to showcase advances in data infrastructures, interoperable systems, tools and platforms, and the transformation of marine data into knowledge and decision-support products.

The World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB) 2026 will take place from 17–20 November 2026 in Bruges, Belgium, with organisation led by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). This flagship global event will gather scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders to explore the latest research, innovations, and solutions for marine biodiversity observations, data, conservation and sustainable ocean management. The Call for Abstracts is open until 17 March 2026 (23:59 CET), and registration is now available via the WCMB 2026 registration portal, with early-bird rates valid until 18 June 2026. Find all submission details and updates on the WCMB 2026 website.

The 7th edition of the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity (WCMB 2026) takes place in Bruges, Belgium, from 17 to 20 November 2026, organised by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Held roughly midway through the UN Ocean Decade, the conference brings together scientists, policymakers and stakeholders to discuss the state of marine biodiversity and identify what still needs to be tackled by the end of the Decade.

EMODnet Biology will organise a three-day Data Management training workshop for Black Sea data providers from 28 to 30 October 2026 in Constanța, Romania. The course will focus on preparing and standardising marine biological datasets using Darwin Core, supporting their publication in EMODnet Biology. Researchers and data managers are invited to bring their own datasets and contribute to improving data availability for the Black Sea region.

The call for challenges for Ocean Hackathon® 2026 is now open, inviting innovators, researchers, and organisations to shape the future of the blue economy. EMODnet Secretariat's Angeliki Karampourouni and Matteo Mikos co-presented EMODnet's service offer at the online warm-up sessions in April ahead of the event taking place from 16–18 October 2026 across multiple locations worldwide. The hackathon will bring together multidisciplinary teams to transform marine data into practical, prototype solutions addressing ocean sustainability and real-world needs. Submit your challenge before 30 May.

On the morning of 5 and 6 October 2026, EMODnet Biology will host a workshop to help EU-funded biodiversity projects ensure their outputs become available via EMODnet Biology. The sessions will provide guidance on biodiversity data standards and product creation, and discuss how project outputs can feed into the EMODnet Biology service.

On 10 September 2026, EMODnet will speak at the UN Ocean Decade Coordination Office for Ocean Data Sharing (DCO-ODS) webinar on new Socio-economic Data Sharing Guidelines. Kate Larkin, Head of the EMODnet Secretariat, will join fellow experts to discuss the importance of advancing access to and sharing of socio-economic ocean data. The guidelines were developed by DCO-ODS, with input from EMODnet and wider experts and provide a foundational framework for strengthening global socio-economic data-sharing practices.

EMODnet has delivered a major milestone for the EDITO Data Lake, with all of EMODnet data collections now seamlessly integrated through fully automated synchronisation. This ensures continuous access to the latest available, trusted in situ marine data from EMODnet throughout the EDITO ecosystem, enhancing accessibility and interoperability of Europe’s marine data, on the cloud.

EMODnet welcomes two new Associated Partners (APs) to its network, namely the Izmir Institute of Technology in Türkiye, IZTECH, and DIVR, a Dutch-based recreational diver platform. These bring new, diverse, data including biodiversity and multi-parametric coastal observations to the EMODnet service, together with new stakeholder communities from citizen science to coastal engineering and modelling communities. Check out all of EMODnet's AP profiles on the Portal!

Explore new projections using the Size Spectrum Dynamic Bioclimate Envelope Model (SS-DBEM) of relative biomass change for 18 fish species across the North Atlantic under a high-emissions future (RCP 8.5) and sustainable fishing pressure (F/Fmsy = 1.0). Combining outputs from three biogeochemical models, this dataset reveals where species may gain or lose biomass between 2030 and 2100, offering a long-term perspective on climate-driven spatial shifts in marine ecosystems and fisheries resources.

A new dataset provides a decade of phytoplankton observations from Romanian Black Sea waters, collected between 2006 and 2015 by the National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa” (NIMRD). The dataset includes more than 24,000 occurrence records and 170,000 associated measurements and is now available through the interconnected EMODnet Biology, EurOBIS and OBIS services.

In July 2026 in Vienna, EMODnet Chemistry celebrated the launch by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of a common platform for collecting data on global plastics monitoring. The evidence-based information on the abundance and impact of marine plastic pollution will also contribute to the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, a multi-stakeholder initiative led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), bringing together all actors working on the prevention and reduction of marine litter and plastic pollution. EMODnet Chemistry's experience in marine litter data management supports both IAEA’s and UNEP’s initiatives.

A newly published paper in Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability presents the multi-level quality control framework developed within EMODnet Chemistry to validate eutrophication-related data (nutrients, chlorophyll and oxygen) across European seas. The paper describes how data originators, data managers and regional coordinators apply three successive levels of quality control, combining automated checks with expert validation, to produce harmonised, FAIR-compliant datasets that support policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).

During summer 2026, EMODnet Data Ingestion (DI) kicked off a new phase, with an updated consortium of organisations and experts, led by the CMCC, Italy. This delivers continuity of the existing service, together with strategic evolution of EMODnet’s data ingestion service building on the EMODnet Vision 2035. Going forward, DI will place particular attention on ingesting data from providers with no (or limited) established pipelines to EMODnet. This includes marine environmental and human activities data from the Blue Economy and the wider private sector, coastal and offshore licensing activities, citizen science and other under-represented public sources and emerging observing systems.

Building on the June 2026 launch of the European OceanEye communication, EMODnet provided expert input to European Commission calls for evidence to help shape the future Ocean and Water Research and Innovation (R&I) Strategy. EMODnet supports the integration of the Ocean R&I Strategy and Water Resilience R&I Strategy for a more holistic approach, with EMODnet’s service evolution expanding at the land-sea interface, also providing ongoing expert advice on (meta)data interoperability for the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Water4All Partnership, among others.

The UN Ocean Decade has published a new discussion paper, “Ocean Data Sharing and National Security”, examining how governments, research institutions, industry, defence stakeholders and data managers can maximise the benefits of ocean data sharing while addressing legitimate national security concerns. The paper aims to support informed dialogue and the development of practical recommendations for the ocean data community. Stakeholders are invited to contribute their perspectives through an online survey, helping to shape future guidance on this important topic. EMODnet supports the principle of making marine data “as open as possible, as restricted as necessary”, ensuring broad data accessibility while recognising justified security-related limitations. The survey is open until the end of September 2026. Read the discussion paper. Have your say in the survey.

On 30 September 2026, the Land-Sea 2026 conference “Shaping an Observation Strategy Together” will take place in Brussels, gathering scientists, decision makers and regional stakeholders to take stock of progress in efforts to improve and integrate observation of the land-sea interface and to help shape a Common Observation Strategy for these crucial areas. EMODnet experts are directly involved, including representation on panel discussions towards a strategy to strengthen initiatives and services across the knowledge value chain at the land-sea interface. Registration is open until 1 September 2026. For more information, visit the LandSeaLot Webpage.

EMODnet's next EMODnet for Business workshop, ‘OceanEye: Streamlining data flows from sensor to user’, will take place online on 5 November 2026 from 13:45 to 17:15 CET. This invitation-only event will bring together ocean observation technology providers, the wider observing community, and data and data management experts to explore opportunities and challenges in data sharing, innovation in ocean observing technologies, and the future of marine data ecosystems. View the high-level agenda via the EC Maritime Forum .

Recommendations from the conference Riding the Wave: Advancing the EU Ocean Pact through Science, Innovation and Cooperation held in May 2026, during which Kate Larkin, Head of the EMODnet Secretariat, contributed to the session From Ocean Knowledge to Policy Impact: Implementing the EU Ocean Pact through Science, Data and Innovation, have been published in Zenodo.

On 10 July 2026, the EMODnet Secretariat represented the network at the Water4All Workshop on ‘Data Sharing in the European Water Sector’ in Brussels, which brought together stakeholders to explore practical solutions to data-sharing challenges across the water domain. Discussions covered topics including data governance, national data portals, standardisation, and the development of a digital water society. EMODnet highlighted its role in supporting EU digital, climate and water policy objectives through the provision of open, free and FAIR in situ data and data products, demonstrating how marine data infrastructures can help address key data bottlenecks and strengthen cross-sector collaboration.