International Collaboration
Project Acronym: EuroGO-SHIP
Project Title: Euro GO-SHIP: developing a Research Infrastructure concept to support European hydrography
Funding Programme: Horizon Europe
Total Budget: €2.9 million
Duration: December 2022 – November 2025
No. of Partners:14 partners from 11 countries.
Coordinator: NORCE Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE), Norway – Dr. Elaine McDonagh (Coordinator) and Ryan Weber (Project Manager)
Website: https://eurogo-ship.eu/
Project Aim
The main objective of EuroGO-Ship is to enable the European community conducting ship-based hydrographic observations at sea to provide higher quality and more sustainable data flows to a broad range of end users, more effectively.
The project will work towards strengthening European capabilities to deliver world-class Oceanographic science, which is key to inform policies and to meet the goals of the EU Mission “Restore our Ocean and Waters by 2030” and the wider objectives of the EU Green Deal. To achieve this, EuroGO-SHIP will scope, innovate, propose, and deliver new services to enhance European hydrographic observations taken from ships, as key research infrastructures contributing to the wider ocean observing system. The project will engage and consult with the scientific community, existing Research Infrastructures (RIs), governments and funders to qualify existing needs of hydrography data originators and end users working with them towards strengthening European capabilities. Based on the results of these conversations, a new structure for supporting European Hydrography will be proposed, offering alternatives and a blueprint for its development. The project will also seek to connect to wider, non-expert audiences to increase the understanding of the societal value of hydrographic observations, thereby contributing to advance ocean literacy.
Within the EuroGO-Ship project the Marine Institute will mainly contribute to the following work packages
• WP2: Concept development through co-design
• WP4: Science inputs & stakeholder engagement
• WP5: RI structure, governance & financial model
EuroGO-SHIP is co-funded by the European Union, Horizon Europe Funding Programme for research and innovation under grant agreement No. 101094690 and by UK Research and Innovation.
Project Acronym: CE2COAST
Project Title: Downscaling Climate and Ocean Change to Services: Thresholds and Opportunities
Funding Programme: JPI Climate & JPI Oceans (Joint Transnational Call on Next Generation Climate Science in Europe for Oceans)
Total Budget: €8.6m
Duration: September 2020 – August 2023
No. of Partners: 12 (Norway, Belgium, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, France)
Coordinator: Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway
Website: www.ce2coast.com
Project Aim:
Human-made global change will have significant impacts at regional and coastal scales on marine systems, dependent socio-economic systems and ocean services; affecting fishing, pollution, and eutrophication. CE2COAST aims to deliver estimates of natural and forced variability of oceanic processes as well as regional and local mean states and trends of pressures on ocean services, through the collection and analysis of observational and modelling data. A capacity to understand and predict these impacts on regional seas and coasts is essential for developing robust strategies for adaptation and mitigation. To combat the consequences of ocean change, CE2COAST will pursue strategic coherence of national observation strategies, where collective learning and slipstreaming leads to faster progress, using dynamical downscaling methodology, to ultimately deliver an integrated European evaluation of marine health and challenges. As such, CE2COAST has the potential to contribute science-based knowledge for the alleviation of economic, scientific and social disparity across Europe.
The Marine Institute's ocean modelling team is mainly collaborating on work packages 2 and 3, which will deliver the evaluation of the Earth System Models at a regional scale around Ireland and the downscaling of past changes and climate projections for the Western Irish Shelf. This downscaling will comprise of both hydrodynamics and biogeochemical cycling, including the carbonate system for the purpose of analysing ocean pressures, e.g. warming, deoxygenation; and for developing climate services for stakeholders, e.g. in aquaculture and fisheries sectors.
Project Acronym: FORCOAST
Project Title: Earth Observation services for wild fisheries, oysterground restoration and bivalve mariculture along European coasts
Funding Programme: Horizon 2020
Total Budget: €2.28 million
Duration: November 2019 – April 2022
No. of Partners: 21 (Belgian, Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Ireland, Denmark, Italy,
Coordinator: Stichting Deltares, Netherlands
Website: www.forcoast.eu
Project Aim
The FORCOAST project is funded under the H2020 space call, which seeks to foster market development exploiting the value of Copernicus Earth Observation Products. FORCOAST aims to provide information services that offer high resolution water quality and met-ocean indicators in coastal and nearshore areas, to improve operation, planning and management of different marine activities in the sectors of wild fisheries, oystergrounds restoration, and bivalve mariculture. FORCOAST information products and services will be co-designed with stakeholders, thereby ensuring that these products and services are tailored to meet their needs.
The Marine Institute’s main role is to develop ocean modelling services in support of native oyster restoration and bivalve mariculture in inner Galway Bay. The existing numerical model “Connemara” will be downscaled further to provide high resolution coverage of the pilot site. Further datasets from Copernicus, ESA, EUMETSAT and local in-situ measurements will be collated and included in the online platform along with the model outputs. The Marine Institute works closely with Cuan Beo, a local NGO, and will work with other stakeholders to define the requirements and co-develop this service. The parameters of interest include forecasts of physical (e.g. temperature and salinity), biogeochemical (e.g. chlorophyll) and water quality (e.g. coliforms) parameters.
Project Acronym: EuroSea
Project Title: Improving and Integrating European Ocean Observing and Forecasting Systems for Sustainable use of the Oceans
Funding Programme: Horizon 2020
Total Budget: €12.6 million
Start/End Date: November 2019 – December 2023
No. of Partners: 55 (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Norway, United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Estonia, Brazil, and Canada)
Coordinator: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel
Website: https://www.eurosea.eu/
Project Aim
The EuroSea project aims to improve ocean observations in Europe by combining existing capacities and filling current knowledge gaps. As well as improving ocean measurements, EuroSea focuses on the quality and usability of collective data and development of downstream services for society.
The Marine Institute will be leading an area of the EuroSea project which involves working with users in aquaculture, fisheries, and environmental agencies to co-create products that help identify and foresee extreme marine events. These extreme marine events may be low oxygen levels and marine heat waves that can threaten marine ecosystems, resources, food security and related businesses. The Marine Institute will also be developing data products and services using numerical models in Irish waters, which will be combined with biological datasets provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). In addition, the Marine Institute will support the establishment of an integrated European Tide Gauge Network, which will include the existing Irish Tide Gauge Network, and will be involved in a task to ensure the use of results beyond the project lifetime in order to maximise the impact of EuroSea.
Project Acronym: MyCOAST
Project Title: Coordinated Atlantic coastal operational oceanographic observatory
Funding Programme: Interreg Atlantic Area
Total Budget: €2.99 million
Duration: November 2017 – June 2021
No. of Partners: 22 (Belgium, France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, UK).
Coordinator: Fundación AZTI – AZTI Fundazioa (AZTI)
Website: www.mycoast-project.org
Project Aim
The objective of MyCOAST is to build a coordinated Atlantic Coastal Operational Observatory in the Atlantic area by enhancing cooperation in the Atlantic region with the aim to improve coastal monitoring and forecasting tools to support threat and emergency response. The contribution of MyCOAST is fully aligned with the long-term initiative to establish a sustainable European Ocean Observation System (EOOS) to foster Europe’s ocean observing capacity.
The Marine Institute will lead Work Package 7 Development of Coastal Risk Tools.
Project Acronym: CleanAtlantic
Project Title: Tackling marine litter in the Atlantic area
Funding Programme: Interreg Atlantic Area
Total Budget: €3.24 million
Duration: September 2017 – September 2021
No. of Partners: 18 (France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, UK)
Coordinator: Centro Tecnológico del Mar - Fundación (CETMAR)
Website: www.cleanatlantic.eu
Project Aim
The aim of the CleanAtlantic project is to protect biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic area by improving the capabilities to monitor, prevent and remove (macro) marine litter. It also aims to raise awareness and improve marine litter managing systems which will help manage and assist the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) implementation.
The Marine Institute will participate in a number of work packages including the mapping and modelling of marine litter to develop sub regional or regional maps of hotspots of floating litter based on the circulation of floating masses of marine litter; collaborating with marine stakeholders to develop best practices to reduce the presence of marine litter in the Atlantic area; and raising awareness with local and regional stakeholders about the sources, impacts and solutions for marine litter.
This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Atlantic Area Programme.
Project Acronym: iFADO
Project Title: Innovation in the framework of the Atlantic deep ocean
Funding Programme: Interreg Atlantic Area
Total Budget: €3.63 million
Duration: November 2017 – November 2021
No. of Partners: 20 (France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, UK).
Coordinator: Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisboa, Portugal.
Website: www.ifado.eu
Project Aim
The iFADO project aims to create marine services at regional and subregional scale using the EU Atlantic Waters as case study. By filling current technical gaps, iFADO would use the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) implementation to demonstrate the application of innovative products. The project will combine traditional monitoring with cost-effective, state-of-the-art technologies: remote sensing, numerical modelling and emerging observation platforms such as gliders and oceanic buoys.
The Marine Institute will coordinate Work Package 7 which covers numerical modelling.
Project Acronym: CoCliME
Project Title: Co-development of CLimate services for adaptation to changing Marine Ecosystems
Funding Programme: ERA4CS
Total Budget: €4.6 million
Duration: September 2017 – August 2020
No. of Partners: 11 (Ireland, France, Germany, Norway, Romania, Spain and Sweden)
Coordinator: Marine Institute, Ireland
Website: www.coclime.eu
Project Aim
The CoCliME project will co-develop and co-produce bespoke, proof-of-concepts or prototype marine ecosystem climate services and a transferable framework for climate services development, to support informed decision making relevant to climate change-related ecological and socio-economic impacts across different coastal regions. To achieve these objectives the newly established CoCliME consortium brings together a transdisciplinary team of natural and social scientists, decision makers, and users of climate services that will dynamically interact to identify common and priority climate change-related vulnerabilities and solutions in six European coastal areas (Atlantic, Baltic, Black, Mediterranean, North and Norwegian Seas case studies). In these areas, CoCliME will focus on coastal ecosystem status indicators (e.g. harmful algal blooms, marine biotoxins and pathogens, marine microbial biodiversity) that can be markedly influenced by climate change and have direct impacts on human health (food-borne poisoning and water-quality related health disorders), economic prosperity (fisheries, aquaculture, tourism) and social wellbeing (recreation). From the very start a co-production and co-development approach to climate services will identify the information and knowledge needs of decision makers and users, and facilitate and accelerate local, national and European decision making concerning adaptation to climate change impacts. This marine ecosystem climate service framework will feed into mechanisms such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Marine Spatial Planning, national monitoring and reporting requirements, and climate adaptation planning to ensure the protection and sustainable use of Europe´s marine and coastal ecosystems for future generations.
Project Acronym: COMPASS
Project Title: Collaborative Oceanography and Monitoring for Protected Areas and SpecieS
Funding Programme: Interreg VA
Total Budget: €7.7 million
Duration: January 2017 – March 2022
No. of Partners: 5 (Ireland, Northern Ireland & Scotland)
Coordinator: Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI)
Website: www.compass-oceanscience.eu
Project Aim
The COMPASS project will deliver the first fully coherent network of monitoring buoys across the regional seas of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and West Scotland. Integrating the longest continuously maintained oceanographic monitoring stations in Europe (e.g. Tiree mooring & Western Irish Sea) within a network of new buoys equipped with oceanographic sensors, acoustic recorders and advanced fish tracking technology, this exciting and innovative project will build the cross-border capacity for effective monitoring and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The project will develop long-term monitoring strategies for highly mobile protected species such as marine mammals and salmonids, and provide essential infrastructure for baseline oceanographic and ambient noise monitoring. The development of observational and data management capacity across the region will be complemented by the delivery of three truly regional scale environmental models designed to support the management of a cross-border MPA network. These models will link established modelling platforms between UK and Irish programmes at spatially relevant scales. In addition to delivering the COMPASS buoy network and infrastructure legacy, the project process itself will also consolidate the internationally recognised but currently disparate partner skills to build a truly inter-regional unit of expertise.
Project Acronym: AtlantOS
Project Title: Optimising and Enhancing the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing Systems
Funding Programme: Horizon 2020
Total Budget: €20.65 million
Duration: April 2015 – June 2019
No. of Partners: 62 partners from 18 countries (13 EU & 5 non-EU).
Coordinator: GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany - Prof. Martin Visbeck
Website: www.atlantos-h2020.eu
Project Aim
The main objective of AtlantOS is to improve and innovate existing Atlantic observing by defining, establishing and supporting an Atlantic Ocean Observing System which will be more sustainable, more efficient, more integrated and a fit-for-purpose framework for Atlantic observation. It will strengthen the contribution to the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) as the ocean component of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
It will build on the aims of the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation signed in 2013 by the EU, Canada and the US, launching a Transatlantic Ocean Research Alliance to enhance collaboration to better understand the Atlantic Ocean and sustainably manage and use its resources.
Within the AtlantOS project the Marine Institute will contribute to the development of a strategy for Atlantic Ocean Observing (WP1), the integration of coastal and open ocean measurements (WP4), the demonstration of services in the GEO societal benefit areas (WP8), System evaluation and sustainability (WP9) and Engagement, Dissemination and Communication (WP10). The Institute is also co-Principal Investigator for WP8.