Fifteen years ago, countries came together under the first-ever Joint Programming Initiative dedicated to the ocean to align their national marine research agendas. Last week in Brussels, we commemorated that important milestone… and immediately got down to work, pressing on with the 35th Management Board meeting to pursue our expressed goals of advancing knowledge, informing policy, and driving innovation.
This anniversary carried particular weight. It’s not every day that a European Commissioner pauses to recognise your contribution. In his message at JPI Oceans’ anniversary reception, Commissioner Costas Kadis acknowledged our role as “a partner, a generator and an accelerator” of marine knowledge, and noted how closely our strategy aligns with the ambition of the European Ocean Pact: stronger evidence, better coordination, and faster translation of science into action.
The 35th Management Board meeting that preceded the reception served to contour the size of that task. New topics, new potential partners, new ways of connecting research to policy, while maintaining the essence of what has worked so far. This meeting also marked a notable development in our governance, with Spain formally approved as the first-ever JPI Oceans observer country and now returning to our wider circles to expand perspectives around the table.
At the previous Board meeting in Rhodes last October, members reviewed ideas for potential JPI Oceans Joint Actions submitted through an open solicitation process and asked the Secretariat to assess the feasibility and added value of three of them. Based on the evidence collected and the case built by experts, all three will now officially elaborate their scoping.
The Scoping Action on Plastic-Associated Chemicals builds directly on JPI Oceans’ pioneering work on microplastics and shifts the focus from reactive to preventive management of chemical pollution. The concept is still in development, but initial analysis points to the need to understand cumulative effects, mobility, and classification challenges. A concept for a Joint Action will be presented to the Management Board in autumn 2026.
The Scoping Action on Offshore Infrastructure draws on several ideas shared by the community on the need to monitor and assess the impacts of offshore energy installations and other critical human made marine infrastructure. Discussions showed that relevant evidence exists but is scattered across disciplines, which is where JPI Oceans might be able to structure collaboration. As Chair Peter Haugan noted, this is a rapidly evolving field, and one where JPI Oceans should maintain a presence.
The third topic, Electromagnetic Oceans, is clearly more niche albeit it is beginning to receive attention also beyond Europe. It seems that electromagnetic effects can extend tens or even hundreds of metres from the source, with relevance for habitats and maritime spatial planning. The topic offers a wide-open space for knowledge generation, and Board members noted its complementarity with our ongoing Joint Actions on energy stressors, particularly noise and light.
Preparations for a Joint Call on Ocean Oxygen Loss later in the year continue to progress, supported by countries with strong research programmes on the topic and by scientific partners such as IOC UNESCO’s GO2NE group. Recent studies and conference panels stress emerging signs of deoxygenation in several European basins, particularly the Mediterranean, in addition to the well-documented issue in the Baltic and Black Seas. Participants stressed the link of oxygen measurements with ocean carbon and broader climate processes, both to reflect the direction of a more integrated MSFD and to distinguish natural variability from anthropogenic trends.
We also reviewed plans for a second phase of the Sea Level Rise Knowledge Hub, following the publication of the first Assessment Report. The Board agreed on the urgency of continuing this seminal work, noting that political attention to sea level rise remains insufficient despite long adaptation lead times. Throughout 2026, the JPI Oceans and JPI Climate will jointly co-lead a structured scoping process, including ongoing expert consultations, to consolidate governance and sharpen the scope. Full drafting is expected in 2027–2028, contingent on support and momentum from interested countries.
Interventions from different European Commission services helped pin JPI Oceans’ work within a sea of European priorities. The Board welcomed James Morrison, Director Healthy Planet at DG Research and Innovation, who took part in his first official JPI Oceans meeting since assuming the post. Highly valuable were also the contributions from Rémy Denos (DG MARE), Alice Belin (DG ENV) and Georg Hanke (JRC) as they clarified ongoing processes such as the Ocean Pact, the forthcoming Ocean Act, the recently announced OceanEye, and the revision of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
That evening, we came together for a JPI Oceans anniversary reception worthy of the occasion at the University Foundation in Brussels, joined by Management Board members, JPI Oceans veterans, candidate country representatives, and valued partners. We were honoured to welcome MEPs Christophe Clergeau and Isabella Lövin, who both spoke to the importance of ocean science in the current European political moment and to the need to ensure its adequate recognition in the EU’s forward-looking programmes and budgets.
Along one wall of the reception room, a small exhibition told fifteen years of JPI Oceans through objects: an underwater noise recorder, a polymetallic nodule, samples of microplastics. Tangible things from a body of work that can otherwise be easy to abstract away into reports and recommendations. It was a good reminder of what coordinated ocean research actually looks like when it reaches the water.
Far from nostalgic for times past, the mood was forward-looking: as pressures on the ocean intensify and policy frameworks become more interconnected, we will need to build on that foundation with the same openness to new ideas that has shaped our work from the start.
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