Project

OBAMA-NEXT aims to develop a toolbox for generating accurate, precise and relevant information characterizing marine ecosystems and their biodiversity. This will be achieved by integrating new/emerging technologies, including remote sensing, eDNA, optical instruments and citizen science, with existing marine monitoring techniques for improving our capacity to describe ecosystem function and biodiversity with higher spatial and temporal resolution. The project will contribute to shaping next generation monitoring programs and defining Essential Ocean/Biodiversity Variables (EOVs/EBVs). Stakeholders will be involved from the onset of the project to identify products needed in an iterative co-creating and specification process. These specifications will guide the application of algorithms, including advanced statistical analyzes and artificial intelligence, which combine and translate different data sources into information products (ie, maps and indicators) to fulfill stakeholders' needs. Routines for visualization and methods for uncertainty assessment are also important components of the toolbox development. The toolbox will be evaluated and improved based on 12 selected Learning Sites (LS), representing diverse ecosystems and data sources within the four European regional seas. The applicability of the information products, compiled with the toolbox on LS data, will be evaluated as input to models for predicting biodiversity and as support for environmental and biodiversity policies. The project will also assess the usefulness of the products with respect to the EU objective of designating an ecologically coherent MPA network and the applicability of C-burial rates in angiosperm habitats for carbon offsetting and Nationally Determined Contributions. OBAMA-NEXT will strengthen Europe's capability in acquiring and utilizing biological ocean observations for better management of marine resources through strong public outreach and active stakeholder communication.

Deep Seabed Mining (DSM) is the search for, and exploitation of, minerals and metals necessary to construct clean energy technologies. However, there are outstanding gaps and uncertainties as to the possible environmental impacts, and how to legally carry-out these activities, is not yet determined. This book will have state-of-the art learnings on how to conduct DSM in a just and sustainable way.

AquaINFRA will develop a virtual environment equipped with FAIR multi-disciplinary data and services to support marine and freshwater scientists and stakeholders restoring healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters. The AquaINFRA virtual environment will enable the target stakeholders to store, share, access, analyse and process research data and other research digital objects from their own discipline, across research infrastructures, disciplines and national borders leveraging on EOSC and the other existing operational dataspaces (e.g., EMODnet, Copernicus Marine Service, Digital Twins, etc.).

The EU Mission ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ (Mission Ocean) aims at protecting and restoring the health of our ocean and waters through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments by 2030. The creation of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO) supports this mission as well as the key initiative of the European Commission, Destination Earth (DestinE), aiming at developing a highly accurate digital model of the Earth on a global scale to be able to monitor, simulate, and predict the interaction between natural phenomena and human activities. Addressing the Horizon Europe call HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-8, SEADITO focuses on the need for a targeted set of analytical methods and tools to support the development of the EU DTO including integrating social-ecological models in order to establish a comprehensive decision support platform. SEADITO aims at increasing transdisciplinary abilities of social-ecological models by updating and integrating them for improved Ecosystem-based Management, and a set of case studies in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean as well a Pan-European case study will provide the contexts for the multiactor processes identifying user needs, as well as co designing and testing components and services in the targeted user communities. The results will include sets of interoperable, spatial explicit, and DTO compliant social-ecological decision-support components based on FAIR principles (e.g. to be integrated with EDITO-Model Lab), as well as scalable and multi-level social-ecological models, integrated quantitative and qualitative social-ecological indicators, and workflows quantifying and integrating cultural and behavioural aspects. The components will be tested through an interactive spatial platform, the SEADITO Explorer equipped with visual demonstrators of socialecological models and a Scenario Toolkit (WIST). Learning materials will target young researchers, decision-makers, and the public.

Marine SABRES brings together stakeholders from government, policy, business and coastal management, with marine scientists to co-design a simple Social-Ecological System framework to accelerate the uptake of Ecosystem-Based
Management and strengthen interventions and measures for the protection and conservation of coastal and marine areas, their biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ES). Marine SABRES will enhance formulation and support implementation of European and international marine policies, by effectively translating scientific knowledge into management and conservation action. It will enable managers to make sustainable decisions; empower citizens to engage with marine biodiversity conservation; and promote sustainable development in coastal and marine sectors, setting Europe on a course to reverse marine biodiversity decline.