The EGU25 General Assembly is your chance to influence the dialogue on emerging challenges and innovations in the geosciences. Contribute to the scientific program by submitting an abstract before 15 January 2025, and seize the opportunity to shape community priorities by proposing a Townhall session before 22 January 2025. Join fellow researchers, experts, and stakeholders, and become part of the conversation defining the future of Earth, planetary, and space science research. For more information on submission guidelines and session details, visit https://www.egu25.eu/.

The European Commission has opened a public consultation on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) Regulation, inviting stakeholders to provide input on the future of EU fisheries management. This consultation aims to assess the policy’s effectiveness, address emerging challenges, and explore ways to enhance sustainability and resilience in the sector. Contributions from fisheries professionals, scientists, policymakers, and the public will help shape future regulatory developments. The consultation is open until 25 April 2025, providing an opportunity for broad engagement. To participate and share your views, visit the official consultation page.

The 9th European Marine Board (EMB) Forum on Addressing coastal and water resilience at the land-sea interface will take place on 2 April 2025 in Brussels, Belgium and will bring together marine scientists, policymakers, and stakeholders to reflect on past achievements and explore future priorities for advancing sustainable ocean governance and marine science policy. The event will also celebrate 30 years of connecting science and policy to address key challenges in marine research and innovation. More information and registration: 9th EMB Forum.

Join leading experts, policymakers, and stakeholders at the 9th European Marine Board (EMB) Forum on 2 April 2025 in Brussels and online, as they consider aspects such as policy and governance for the land-sea interface, pollution crossing the land-sea interface, and coastal adaptation and livability on the land-sea interface.

There’s never been a better time to harness the power of Open Data to drive new knowledge. During the EU Open Data Days 2025 event at the European Convention Centre in Luxembourg, EMODnet’s Head of Secretariat Kate Larkin showcased EMODnet as a success story for Open and FAIR data in the marine domain, demonstrating how EMODnet is supporting EU Policy, the Blue Economy, Research, Innovation, and society at large. Recordings and presentations are now available online.

EMODnet was well-represented at European Ocean Days 2025 a high-level, week-long event from 3-7 March 2025 in Brussels that brought together stakeholders from across Europe's Ocean community. Marine Knowledge was a central theme to the multiple events covering ocean literacy, Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters, sustainable fisheries, the blue economy, and more. And EMODnet was visible as a key EU asset for marine knowledge at the session "Marine Knowledge for the Ocean Pact", which included interventions by EC DG MARE and EMODnet Chemistry Coordinator OGS. EMODnet's key role as the in situ component to the European Digital Twin Ocean was also highlighted.

Many EMODnet experts attended the International Ocean Data Conference (IODC III), held on 10–11 March 2025 in Santa Marta, Colombia, co-organised by IODE of IOC-UNESCO and INVEMAR in the context of the UN Ocean Decade. This event brought together global marine data actors to advance open, FAIR, and interoperable ocean data systems with thematic session on marine biodiversity data, capacity building and the global ocean data ecosystem. Check out the EMODnet posters, presentations and highlights on the IODC III website and EMODnet Portal!

At the Mission Ocean and Waters Forum during EU Ocean Days 2025 in Brussels, the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO) booth drew strong interest from across the marine community. As the in situ component of the EU DTO, and a co-developer of the EDITO-Infra initiative, EMODnet was at the forefront, engaging visitors with insights into how its harmonised marine data underpins the European Digital Twin Ocean and supports dynamic, scenario-based tools for sustainable ocean management.

A recent study, conducted as part of a master’s thesis at the Faculty of Maritime Studies Kotor, University of Montenegro, showcases how EMODnet geospatial data can support advanced route planning for Unmanned Sea Vehicles (USVs). By integrating EMODnet data with third-party systems, the researchers developed a methodology for filtering, mapping, and exporting marine data to improve the operational efficiency of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).

EMODnet Human Activities data on the occurrence and distribution of maritime activities—such as offshore platforms—was used to investigate the regulations and protection levels within Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the European Union. This PhD research, supported by CCMAR, CNRS, and INRAE, highlights major data gaps in MPA management and serves as a benchmark for monitoring and future policy evaluation.

A new report on an EMODnet Biology Autumn 2024 data school is now out. This exemplifies that whilst EMODnet’s stakeholder engagement and collection of marine biodiversity data continues to expand in collaboration with data providers and other initiatives, the total number of biological occurrence records for the Mediterranean Region remain low compared to other marine regions such as the Atlantic Ocean, North and the Baltic Seas. Concerted action is needed to increase data collection and data sharing efforts in the southern European regional sea basins.

The publication of data, which was completed in March 2025, increased the EMODnet biodiversity data holdings by approximately half a million new occurrence records. The data originates from a total of 42 datasets, comprising 24 newly published and 19 updated datasets, spanning a historical timeframe from 1892 to 2024. These datasets collectively provide broad temporal and spatial coverage, with geographical focus areas including the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Mediterranean, Black, and North Seas.

EMODnet continues to expand its coastal service offer, in collaboration with stakeholders. One key example is the European Horizon Europe LandSeaLot (LSL) project, developing a common observation strategy for land-sea interface areas such as deltas and estuaries, combining cross-community scientific expertise and stakeholder engagement. A key focus is on expanding the number of in situ observations by harnessing cost-effective observation technologies and citizen science, as well as by creating pathways for the ingestion of the resulting data into EMODnet to make it accessible, reusable and interoperable for public use and benefit. By linking citizen science and expert knowledge with the help of emerging technologies, LSL is contributing to richer and more inclusive marine data landscape enhancing EMODnet's capacity to support science-based policies, and the sustainable management of important land-sea interface areas.

From 11 to 13 March 2025, the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics-OGS, which coordinates EMODnet Chemistry, was in Monaco to represent the consortium at the workshop on Harmonization of Monitoring and Assessment of Plastic Pollution of the Global Partnership on Plastic Pollution and Marine Litter (GPML) Community of Practise (CoP). At the meeting, participants faced the challenging task of considering and bringing together different communities concerned with plastics in the economy and/or the environment, for example, as well as their best practices and terminologies.

EMODnet Geology has published a new Story Map on Seafloor Mapping, which shows the long process of geological mapping of the seafloor, interpretation of its results and the compilation of detail and overview map data. Finding and compiling spatial data of seafloor geology remains a challenge, because data and information is largely scattered, rarely compatible and often usable only by insiders. The main reason for this situation is the inaccessibility of the ocean floor and the need to use and rely on mostly geophysical methods. EMODnet is a solution as a leading European resource for marine geological data and data products – check out this latest communication to learn more!

EMODnet is proud to release an updated EMODnet Bathymetry Digital Terrain Model (DTM) based on 2024 bathymetry data. This open access data product has been a key EMODnet data product for some years and is already hugely popular with users. This latest release offers substantial enhancements, including the highest resolution harmonised seabed map of European sea regions to-date, made possible by the EMODnet Bathymetry Consortium and valuable input from EMODnet's broad network of collaborators, contributors, and experts.

In March 2025 EMODnet released an updated version of the Bathymetry Digital Terrain Model for Europe and European waters of the Caribbean (see article below for full details). The DTM has been a flagship EMODnet data product for many years, and the latest version is available on the EMODnet Portal Map Viewer. In this blog, EMODnet experts Conor Delaney, EMODnet Technical Coordinator and George Spoelstra, EMODnet Bathymetry, take a look into the latest DTM, explaining how this was created from a technical perspective, and how to access it via the EMODnet Portal.

On 25–27 March 2025, over 400 people joined the EMODnet Open Sea Lab 4.0 online, bringing together marine data users, data scientists, developers, and innovators from across Europe and beyond. Their mission: to co-create solutions to real-world ocean and coastal challenges using the EMODnet service and other open-source data. For this edition, participants were also given exclusive access to the full EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Service data collections via the European Digital Twin Ocean cloud-based service, which also offers state-of-the-art analytical tools and modelling capabilities. The two top winning teams will pitch their solutions at European Maritime Day 2025 in Cork, Ireland! This flagship event ended a bumper Marine Knowledge Month following EU Ocean Days 2025 (see news articles below for more information).

On 20 March 2025, Kate Larkin, Head of the EMODnet Secretariat, will present EMODnet in a plenary presentation at the EU Open Data Days 2025 event, organized by the Publications Office of the European Union, taking place on 19-20 March 2025 at the European Convention Centre in Luxembourg (ECCL) and online. This event is cross-domain and will showcase success stories in open data, such as EMODnet for the marine domain. To find out more information and join online visit: https://data.europa.eu/en/euopendatadays?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The European Commission has launched a public consultation to gather views on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the EU’s long-term budget for the post-2027 period. Stakeholders from all sectors are invited to share their perspectives on future priorities, funding allocations, and how the EU budget can best support Europe’s challenges and ambitions. The consultation is open until 7 May 2025.

Follow the link to learn more.