Thanks to the collaboration between data providers across Europe, EMODnet Ingestion and EMODnet Chemistry, six organisations from six countries have become champions in providing datasets, as well as in sharing and saving them forever: the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Georgia, Italy and Romania. This is reported by EMODnet Chemistry in its collection of success stories with EMODnet Ingestion. The latest update was presented during the 1st Annual EMODnet Ingestion Phase III Progress Meeting, held on 12-13 April 2023 in Larnaca, Cyprus.

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.

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.

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).

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).

Energinet, an independent public enterprise owned by the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities, develops offshore windfarms and energy islands in Danish Waters. Prior to the development of the offshore windfarms, the Danish Parliament requires Energinet to undertake preliminary studies of the seabed. Energinet is a user of EMODnet Geology data, in particular the Seabed Substrate map and Index Map, to acquire insights in the geology of the Danish seas.

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   .

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!

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.

On 12 December 2022, the EMODnet Secretariat presented EMODnet’s diverse marine environmental and human activities data and data products to the EU Member State Expert Group on Maritime Spatial Planning, including the National Maritime Spatial Plans that EMODnet now offers.

On 23 November 2022, experts from EMODnet and the National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS) of China met for the final meeting of the EU-China project EMOD-PACE and Chinese counterpart project CEMDnet connecting EMODnet with NMDIS services. The results of the very productive collaboration were presented with a particular focus on the data interoperability solutions deployed and the data products that were co-developed, all available via the new EMODnet Central Portal map viewer. The final meeting was preceded by an EMOD-PACE CEMDnet open workshop which took place on 22 November 2022, to showcase the results of the EMODnet-NMDIS collaboration to other interested experts, users and stakeholders with a view to ensure uptake of the outputs, connect with global data sharing initiatives and expand the partnership in Europe and Asia.

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.

A new function called 'My Maps' has been added to the European Atlas of the Seas, which makes it possible for everyone to save and reuse the maps they have created using different map layers. This new function is the result of considerable technical development and it will make it easier for all users to integrate the Atlas in their work and activities. As it is expected that this new function will be particularly useful for teachers, the EMODnet Secretariat has launched an online survey to collect teachers’ feedback.

Join the final, Open Conference of the Blue-Cloud pilot project pilot project for an opportunity to learn about the main results, achievements and the road ahead of this key component of the EU “Future of Seas and Oceans Flagship Initiative”. Gain insight into the key conclusions stemming from this 3-year effort to build a “marine” thematic community within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and into the role it can play in evolving a thriving EU digital marine knowledge system in support of the EU Green Deal and the UN Agenda 2030.

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.