The Aquatic Pollutants Cofund aims to strengthen the European Research Area in the field of clean and healthy aquatic ecosystems and to leverage untapped potential in the collaboration between the freshwater, marine and health research areas.

It will pool the resources of 32 participating research programme owners / managers of 26 countries to implement a joint transnational call for proposals, with EU co-funding. Nine organisations from associated and third countries are joining the proposal as well.

In addition, the Aquatic Pollutants Cofund launched a call for proposals on Scientific Networking and Transfer Projects addressing research and development for supporting knowledge transfer, scientific networking, and public engagement based on the AquaticPollutants 2020 Joint Transnational Call projects. 

Additional Activities will also be carried out to further support the implementation, strategy and alignment of the three JPIs as well as to make an impact on the joint transnational calls.

Some of these pollutants and pathogens are known to harm aquatic ecosystems even in very low concentrations and in turn can negatively influence the provision of safe and clean water for drinking water purposes. In aquatic organisms, serving as staple food, pollutants and anti-microbial resistant bacteria can accumulate and hence enter the food chain causing further secondary effects.

To reduce or, even better, avoid the input of pollutants and pathogens into the environment, a holistic catchment approach to better understand the ecological and human health effects is necessary. The whole water cycle, from sources through the river basins and eventually, for some of them, to the estuaries and oceans, has to be considered. This approach has to include soil and groundwater transport as well as potential atmospheric pathways that these pollutants may take. The effects on human health, the transport and transmission of harmful substances, in particular those generating anti-microbial resistance, from the freshwater and marine environment to organisms via the food chain also need to be taken into account.

Therefore, the Water JPI, JPI Oceans and JPI AMR through their members have jointly developed the proposal on AquaticPollutants to support and connect their research communities to address these challenges.

• to establish integrated and cross-sectoral approaches for risk management combining the research areas of emerging pollutants, pathogens and antimicrobial resistance across all three JPIs under the overall topic “from the source to the mouth“;
• to analyse the spread of emerging pollutants and pathogens related to antimicrobial resistance from the different sources (e.g. urban areas), that lead to impacts and risks on environment and human health;
• to describe the transformation of such emerging pollutants and pathogens and their effects when entering the different ecosystems and accumulating in the food chain;
• to improve strategies and evaluate technologies for reducing the input of such emerging pollutants and pathogens at the sources, on their pathways and end-of-pipe;
• to address the participation and behaviour of stakeholders and end-users;
• to integrate innovative methodologies and tools in order to allow policy-makers to develop more effective policies and efficient regulations;
• to consider dealing with data management, technologies and innovations from all sectors with a One Health perspective;
• to involve relevant sectors, for example from industry and agriculture;
• to include communication and education measures to support the research topics, such as risk communication measures for the various target groups; and
• to foster transfer of knowledge into practice and education as well as strengthen risk awareness and risk communication in society.

The outcomes of the Aquatic Pollutants Cofund are expected to contribute towards:

• Effective trans-national, pan-European research networking, exchange of good practices, synergy, coordination and coherence among national/regional and EU research programs in the areas addressed;
• Improved evidence-based policy through the interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary science-policy interface and links with international efforts and fora on the areas addressed;
• Strengthened international leadership of European research in this area making the relevant JPIs, in collaboration with the European Commission, a privileged and attractive partner for global cooperation in research and innovation;
• The implementation of the objectives of the JPIs on Water, AMR and Oceans;
• Reduced risks posed by emerging pollutants to waterbodies and related ecosystems and food chain, and reduced risks to human health via these ecosystems;
• Increased protection of human health through the provision of safe water;
• Alleviation of water challenges within and beyond Europe, particularly in urban areas.

The Cofunded call is expected to follow the following timeline:

• February 17th 2020: Call opening
• April 16th 2020: Deadline pre-proposals
• June 2020: Selection of pre-proposals
• August 2020: Deadline full proposals
• End 2020 – Beginning 2021: Project start

Willem De Moor

Tel. +32 (0) 2626 1663

• developing innovative uses of underutilised and waste material from fisheries and aquaculture to achieve zero waste; 
• using biotechnology and ICT to develop smart, efficient, traceable food systems and create synergies between aquaculture and fisheries (genetic assessment and digitalisation); 
• unlock the potential of microbiomes to support growth in aquaculture, fisheries, and food processing and biotechnology; apply the latest developments in ICT (IoT, machine learning, big data) to the Blue Bioeconomy; 
• creating predictive tools to improve the identification and targeting of biodiversity “hot-spots” in the oceans (omics based technologies); 
• exploring synergies with land-based production in areas such as food and feed production and processing, biorefining, bioenergy, biomaterials, chemicals and nutrients and maximise the use of aquatic bioresources in terrestrial value chains; 
• improving aquaculture and wild harvesting of stocks by support for the creation of innovative feeds, improved brood stocks, by introducing new species, defining stock baselines, and assessing stocks and by encouraging the adoption of novel production technologies. 

• Better aligned current EU, regional and national initiatives with the goals of fostering the development of European Blue Bioeconomy strategies.
• By significant member state commitment, achieve substantial new knowledge generation for unlocking the economic potential of aquatic biomass through establishment of new, integrated value chains.
• Contributing to the European Commission’s objective in the Bioeconomy Strategy, under Horizon 2020, to generate about 130 000 jobs and € 45 billions in value added in the blue biotechnology sectors by 2025.

Anders Brudevoll

+ 32 (0) 470 62 29 10

The joint call on the Blue Bioeconomy is supported by 16 countries with a total budget of 29.25 million EUR. Applicants are invited to submit pre-proposals by 17 March 2019.

More information here.

By closing date, the BlueBio consortium received 83 project proposals.

More information here.

Following the recommendation of the international review panel and upon a decision of the Call Steering Committee 35 proposals have been invited to submit a full proposal on 17 September 2019.

• MEDLEY | MixED Layer hEterogeneitY | Coordinator: Dr Anne Marie Tréguier, Laboratoire d'Océanographie Physique et Spatiale, France.  The project aims to evaluate the spatial heterogeneity of the ocean mixed layer dynamics and improve its representation in climate modelling to improve their accuracy and consistency.
• ROADMAP | The Role of ocean dynamics and Ocean-Atmosphere interactions in Driving cliMAte variations and future Projections of impact-relevant extreme events | Coordinator: Dr Daniela Matei, Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Germany. This project will investigate the influence of North Atlantic and North Pacific ocean surface variability on the extratropical atmospheric circulation, with a focus on high-impact weather and climate extremes under present-day and future climate conditions.
• EUREC4A-OA | Improving the representation of small-scale nonlinear ocean-atmosphere interactions in Climate Models by innovative joint observing and modelling approaches | Coordinator: Sabrina Speich; L'École normale supérieure - Laboratoire de météorologie dynamique (ENS-LMD), France.
• CE2COAST | Downscaling Climate and Ocean Change to Services: Thresholds and Opportunities | Coordinator: Richard Bellerby, Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway.

The projects, expected to start in the April 2020, will conduct research on interactions between oceans and climate by analysing model simulations and observational data. The research aims to better understand upper ocean variability and dynamics and ultimately improve the performance of climate models. The results of the two projects will help to inform adaptation policy to increase resilience and adaptation measures for vulnerable areas, especially in coastal and low island areas. 

Thorsten Kiefer

Tel. +32 (0) 2626 16 65

The JPI Oceans action 'Ecological aspects of deep-sea mining' aims at assessing the long-term impacts of polymetallic nodule mining on the deep-sea environment. Core of the action is the research project MiningImpact 2 project which gathers 32 partners from 10 different countries and will conduct an independent scientific monitoring of the impact of an industrial test to harvest manganese nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. 

This MiningImpact 2 project will follow up on the results of the first JPI Oceans supported MiningImpact project which was concluded in late December 2017. While the initial project investigated experimental and rather small disturbances of the seafloor over decadal timescales, the new project will set up a comprehensive monitoring programme to ensure an independent scientific investigation of the environmental impacts of an industrial component trial of a nodule collector system by the Belgian contractor DEME-GSR. 

• To develop and test monitoring concepts and strategies for deep-sea mining operations
• To develop standardization procedures for monitoring and definitions for indicators of a good environmental status 
• To investigate potential mitigation measures, such as spatial management plans of mining operations and means to facilitate ecosystem recovery
• To develop sound methodologies to assess the environmental risks and estimate benefits, costs and risks
• To explore how uncertainties in the knowledge of impacts can be implemented into appropriate regulatory frameworks

The first research project 'MiningImpact' improved the understanding of deep-sea ecosystems and the impact of mining thereon. The project has not only attracted interest from the the G7 Science Ministers in their Communiqué from October 2015, but is also delivering input into the development of the international Mining Code (set of regulations for the exploitation of polymetallic nodules in the deep seabed beyond the limits of national jurisdiction), which the International Seabed Authority is in the process of negotiating. At the 22nd Session of the Authority in July 2016, MiningImpact presented these results in order to ensure that the international deep sea mining regime is built on a solid scientific basis and the best available knowledge.

In general, the cost-effective joint use of research infrastructure has facilitated the development of a common understanding and integration of national research activities around a common scientific objective. It has also enabled more effective collective European contributions to international policy-making.

Scientists involved in the project also published the results from the recent research campaign in Nature's Scientific Reports, demonstrating that polymetallic nodule fields are hotspots of abundance and diversity for a highly vulnerable abyssal fauna. 

• Nodule ecosystems support a highly diverse fauna of sessile and mobile species.
• Faunal communities & environmental parameters show a high variability even on a very local spatial scale.
• Benthic fauna communities differ significantly between seamounts and nodule habitats.
• Loss of seafloor integrity by nodule and sediment removal generally reduces population densities and ecosystem functions. Biogeochemical remineralization processes and the productivity of the benthic community are both impacted by nodule removal.
• Disturbance impacts on nodule ecosystems last for many decades, affect numerous ecosystem compartments and functions

More details can be found on the final results overview of the project. 

The second project, MiningImpact 2 will be able to further close existing knowledge gaps and reduce uncertainties on the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules. The project will specifically work towards policy recommendations and has reached out to the International Seabed Authority to become a partner in the project. It will further contribute to the preparation of environmental impact assessments (EIAs) for future European deep-sea pilot mining tests that are requested by the ISA, and to the Horizon2020 technology development projects Blue Atlantis and Blue Nodules.

Willem De Moor

Tel. +32 (0) 2626 1663

The pilot action Ecological Aspects of Microplastics was proposed by Germany in the Management Board of February 2013. In an iterative process scientific experts together with the members of the Management Board (MB) have defined the scope of this pilot action as comprising methods, monitoring and effects of microplastics. Following a bibliometric study, foresight exercise and methods workshop, ten member countries published a joint call in 2015 of 7.7 million Euro. Four projects were selected for funding from January 2016 for a three year period.

• ​BASEMAN - Defining the baselines and standards for microplastics analyses in European waters
• EPHEMARE - Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics in marine ecosystems
• PLASTOX - Direct and indirect ecotoxicological impacts of microplastics on marine organisms
• WEATHER-MIC - How microplastic weathering changes its transport, fate and toxicity in the marine environment

Bibliometric Study

Foresight exercise in microplastics 

Dr. Isabelle Schulz

Tel. +32 (0) 2626 16 70

The periodic reports of the four microplasics projects funded within the framework of JPI Oceans have been delivered to the funding partners and JPI Oceans secretariat. The executive summaries of the reports can be downloaded below

•  BASEMAN 
•  EPHEMARE
•  PLASTOX
•  WEATHER-MIC

This action aims to establish a permanent working group for calibration activities and will propose a future strategic plan towards a permanent, pan-European calibration grid to support the activities of marine observatories. It involves the research community, the National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and industry from the participating countries. The group had its first major meeting in Brest, France, on 13 October 2016 and is now in the process of developing three factsheets (on pH, salinity, and fluorescence) and one white paper summarizing the challenges and justifying the need for this action. The four documents will help identify the next concrete steps for this action.

Europe spends €1.4 billion p.a. for marine data collection: €0.4 billion for satellite data and €1.0 billion for in-situ observations, respectively. In the case of the latter, the traditional and expensive practice of vessel-based data-gathering is progressively giving way to monitoring via “observatories” - complexes of distributed, autonomous, real-time sensor systems. Burgeoning technology and pressing societal needs will soon make such observatories the backbone of European marine observing activity because of their ability to provide copious quantities of diversified data over large areas at reasonable costs. But to be useful for research and decision-making at a transnational level, all the incoming data have to be comparable and amenable to fitness-for-purpose assessments in relation to specific user-group requirements. This will require measurements to be metrologically sound, and instruments to be working within known specifications at all times despite prolonged deployment in harsh conditions.

This action deals with the only realistic way to achieve these goals, which involves continuous, responsive, and high-quality calibrating activity. Calibration, unlike validation, which can be performed with various ways and methods, requires standardised techniques and specialised equipment.

As it was revealed through the JERICO project activities and in particular Deliverable 4.1 “Report on existing calibration facilities”, very few observatory operators actually maintain dedicated calibration facilities with trained personnel. Thus very often sensors are shipped to manufacturers on regular basis which is neither convenient nor cost efficient. Moreover maintenance intervals have to be planned according to the requirements of each sensor (need for double sets of sensors). Thus transport and calibration costs often have a major contribution on total running costs. Partners operating calibration facilities often face difficulties in maintaining dedicated personnel positions as funding is variable and rather insecure. Although there is significant experience among European research institutes on calibration methods, at present each lab works independently with no or very little connections with other labs.

Therefore, the development of a pan-European calibration grid is proposed. The grid will be open to the whole marine community and in close connection with the national metrological institutes while in order to maximise benefits and minimise costs it can have a 2 level approach separating calibration procedures into primary and secondary. In the first level, labs capable of handling reference calibration procedures will be identified and appointed as Primary Reference Nodes (PRN) where secondary calibration instruments can be calibrated. Level 2 or Secondary Reference Nodes (SRN) will use the secondary reference instruments calibrated at PRN and will be responsible for the calibration of the day-to-day operational sensors around European Waters.

Short term:

• The homogenisation of practices within the oceanographic community,
• The dissemination of metrology know-how and practices in institutes and firms,
• The control of the efficiency for the participants of Inter Laboratory Comparisons,
• The improvement of the quality system and the metrology practices of participants (eg. thanks to audits)
• The technological directions to follow for the development of new sensors
• Relevance to the EU’s IMP, MSFD, WFSD, etc.
• Relevance and support to a large number of initiatives, such as GOOS, GMES, JCOMM, CLIVAR, MyOcean, SeaDatanet, EuroGOOS, JERICO, JERICO-NEXT, FixO3, EURAMET

Long Term:

Long-term impacts will be the assessment of strategies in terms of exchanges, collaborations, valorization and dissemination:

• the development of plans to encourage the transition from research to operational support,
• the consolidation of quality guarantees to help authorities to implement appropriate strategies (standards, recommendations, policies, regulations, ...)
• set up of a permanent calibration board in charge of the follow-up of this European Calibration network and of the management and sustainability of its impacts.

Anders Brudevoll
Tel. + 32 (0) 470 62 29 10

In this preparatory meeting, the participants agreed that the first main step should be to hold a meeting alongside “Sea Tech Week” in Brest, France, with the involvement of the most important stakeholders (research community, National Metrology Institutes (NMIs), industry).  

Basic outcomes: Regarding oceanographic data/measurements, although a few recognized standards are in place, no certified reference material is available. As a result, the oceanographers face great difficulties when it comes to ensuring reliable data acquisition, with inevitable consequences on the quality of the research they conduct. Therefore, one of the thrusts for this action is to ensure manufacturers follow a standard calibration procedure to ensure quality assurance and quality control of the products delivered to the field – a process that could follow the form of a certification procedure. To this end, the National Metrology Institutes can contribute by helping the oceanographers and manufacturers to establish validated metrological procedures. Three factsheets and one white paper are currently composed soto define the next concrete steps of the action.

The JPI on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI) and JPI Healthy Diet for a Healthy Life (HDHL) first proposed to address the issue of Food and Nutrition Security as a result of the grand debate during the Milan international EXPO in 2015. They subsequently published the joint paper Priority Joint Actions to contribute to the European Strategy on Food and Nutrition Security. In 2016, JPI Oceans joined the initiative to ensure the entire food system could be addressed. Two expert workshops were held in 2016 to develop this working paper which will be presented to the Management Boards of each JPI.

Food and Nutrition Security bridges a number of Societal Challenges; it encompasses the entire food system (land and sea) from farm to fork. In their Strategic Research Agendas, each JPI (FACCE, HDHL and Oceans) has identified different aspects of this challenge and are now coming together to coordinate efforts in this area. Coordination is needed to bring together different research domains and national and international research investments and to ensure involvement of key actors (consumers, primary producers, industry etc.); to stimulate innovation and implementation. Strong stakeholder involvement in JPIs will facilitate knowledge flow from research towards practice.

It is well known that the health, environmental, economic, and societal costs will be substantial if we do not change our course of action when it comes to the food system and the underlying challenge of Food and Nutrition Security.

Ensuring food and nutrition security is a complex issue, requiring an integrated food systems perspective. To achieve food and nutrition security, there is a need to understand what the “ideal diet” is for different specific populations (e.g. elderly, children…) and in different regions to generate profiles of nutritional needs (macro- and micronutrients) and the corresponding diets. There is also a need to understand climate change effects on food composition and the food system as a whole, again looking at macro- and micronutrients in order to develop resilient and sustainable food systems as well as feed for farmed animals on land and sea. With this information available, different interventions should be sought along the whole food value chain to achieving sustainable and resilient food systems – at the level of the farm, of food processing and transformation and at the level of human consumption. Research could include, for example, the potential of diversified food sources, the exploitation of genetic diversity for breeding nutritional and resilient plant and animal food sources, improved management practices, the role of industry and food retailers, with consumer acceptance as the key driver for bringing about change.

FOOD 2030

The research is expected to contribute to the implementation of the European Commission’s FOOD 2030 initiative, and to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The new Knowledge Hub will also collaborate with Horizon 2020 Action FitforFood2030.

The coordination between the JPIs aims to define a research programme to address the challenge of Food and Nutrition Security.

In order to achieve sustainable and resilient food systems that provide nutritious food from both land and sea, it is necessary to know both the composition of a nutritious diet and also how climate change will affect food production and the nutritional quality of food, through effects on the quality of agricultural and marine primary products.

With this information, it would be possible to develop effective solutions along the whole food chain. The approach consists of two transversal components: a modeling component and an intervention component consisting of several research activities.

Cross cutting activities should be carried out, including education, outreach, data sharing, standardization and harmonization, to support a knowledge flow from scientific research towards practice. This will support a multidisciplinary approach and ensure the involvement of key stakeholders. Dialogue and co-design with stakeholders is crucial for acceptance and uptake of the research outcomes among the following societal actors:

• Consumers- awareness and acceptance of the consumer towards foods is key. Aspects to be considered are: nutritional quality, food safety, production methods, sensory aspects, ethical and environmental issues.
• Industry- Working with industry to increase diversity in feed and food sources to provide greater nutritional qualities and contribute to resilient production systems, to explore food products which are both ethically and economically viable
• Regulatory authorities- Close cooperation to encourage the authorisation of new products.

A set of key indicators needs to be defined in order to monitor the changes.

Anders Brudevoll

+ 32 (0) 470 62 29 10

The workshop aimed to further develop the working document produced during the JPI Workshop. After this workshop, the working paper was updated and presented to the Governing Boards of the three JPIs as well as to the EC (i.e. Food 2030 and WP 2018-2020 H2020) for discussion and decision on implementation/ next steps.

The three JPI’s published a new paper describing the scope of a proposed joint research programme on Food and Nutrition Security: A Multi-Disciplinary Integrative Food System Approach, which was  adopted by the governing boards of FACCE-JPI, JPI Oceans and JPI HDHL. The paper sets out an approach to Work Towards an Integrated Food System Approach, from Farm to Fork, that Provides Sustainable, Resilient and Nutritional Food from Both Land and Sea.

The paper is available here.

JPI Oceans in collaboration with JPI HDHL and FACCE-JPI partners launched ”Knowledge Hub on Food and Nutrition Security”.

The joint initiative aims to establish a Knowledge Hub on Food and Nutrition Security and to provide the unique possibility to connect researchers with other existing initiatives and relevant stakeholders in the Food and Nutrition Security research area. The Knowledge Hub is implemented under the umbrella of ERA-HDHL, the JPI HDHL 1st ERA-Net Cofund.

More information here.

After evaluation by the Call Steering Committee (CSC), 42 research groups were selected to work out a joint network proposal. The selected network members are from the following 7 countries: Portugal, Italy, Spain, Norway, France, Latvia and Germany.

More information here.

Coordinator: Dr. Adam Lillicrap

The Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway

Co-coordinator: Dr. Ioanna Katsiadaki

Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), UK

The knowledge hub on integrated assessment of new pollutants is a network consisting of selected experts from JPI member countries. It will look into the need to improve the methodological basis for marine chemical status assessment, e.g. by focusing on increasing the efficiency of integrated assessment methodologies.

Each participating country is responsible for nomination and funding (in-kind and/or cash) of experts that join the network. The hub will meet four times over a period of 24 months. The key milestones are:

• Kick-off meeting in January 2019 (agenda under 'Related docs')
• Three more meetings of experts: two during 2019 and one in the first quarter of 2020
• Draft report from the knowledge hub to be presented to the Steering Committee in April 2020
• Final report to be produced by December 2020

Actions of the knowledge HUB

The following is a list of activities of the JPI Oceans Knowledge Hub which will be carried out to the extent required to reach the objectives of the knowledge HUB.

Identification of integrated assessment methodology

The first major task of the knowledge hub will be to identify, from literature and known case studies, the most appropriate integrated assessment methodology(-ies) present today for the purpose of testing. In selecting methodology(-ies), the factors determining their compatibility with regulatory context(s), or their potential other benefits/costs, will be discussed.

Definition of input data to be applied in the integrated assessment methodology

The next major task for the knowledge hub will be to identify necessary input data and their sources to be able to run the integrated assessment methodologies.

Identify key users of the integrated assessment methodology

The knowledge hub will identify and establish contact with the potential users of the methodology and the output thereof and aim at their involvement at useful stages during the work of the knowledge hub.

Identify test sites/regions

Identify test sites/regions (geographical spread) for the purpose of implementing the test scheme of the methodologies. Focus on transitional waters for chemicals as this is where effects are anticipated but currently not covered either under WFD or MSFD.

Identify refinement needs of the integrated assessment methodologies

The report should provide an overview of refinement needs of the integrated assessment methodologies.

Common definitions and terminology

The report should provide an overview of common definitions and terminology.

Recommendations for further work

• Provide recommendations for further actions on integrated assessments, specifying which actions JPI Oceans may take a leading position.
• JPI Oceans to provide a repository for sharing documents.
• Provide specific recommendations to the JPI Oceans activity on cumulative effects.
• Provide better/more reliable EQs values (one of the main recommendations during the recent meeting in Vigo of the MSFD Expert Network).

• Finding appropriate scientific critical evaluators for coordination work of the joint action;
• Improving the exchange of ongoing activities on ecotoxicological research with monitoring institutions;
• Building human and technical capacity in ecotoxicological research;
• Providing a platform for dialogue among scientists to address the question of efficiency of possible integrated methods in view of their more widespread application
• Contribute so that the resulting scientific conclusions are used by environmental authorities, finally leading to adjustment of their monitoring activities.

The action Joint funding of the Scientific Intercalibration exercise for the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) coastal and transitional waters in the North-East Atlantic brings together scientific experts to perform required analyses in the most cost-efficient way.

• finding experienced scientific expert leads to perform required analyses in the most cost-efficient way for phytoplankton and benthic invertebrate fauna (as there are constraints in the availability of experts of national environmental authorities)
• reducing fragmentation (of comparison calculation efforts) and increase efficiency in relation to the Water (and Marine Strategy) Framework Directive;
• increasing experience with joint data collection and analysis;
• testing a mechanism for joint funding from environmental authorities of nine member countries, surpassing the traditional model of joint calls, to obtain the performance improvements.

Willem De Moor 
E-mail: willem.demoor@jpi-oceans.eu
Phone: +32 (0)2 626 16 63

The overall goal of the MarTERA Cofund is to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) in maritime and marine technologies and Blue Growth. The consortium launched its first cofunded call in December 2016 and its second joint call in November 2018. In response to the first joint call 19 projects requesting 23 million € were selected for funding. 

The joint call  was initiated by 18 funding organisations of the former ERA-NET MARTEC consortium and JPI Oceans members from 16 countries/regions, with cofunding of the European Commission:

Sectors with a high potential for sustainable blue economy like waterborne transport, shipbuilding & ship repair, offshore and sub-sea activities, monitoring and observations, can support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole and use the potential of Europe’s oceans, seas and coasts for jobs, value and sustainability. Technological breakthroughs are of importance for improving ocean governance, which is by itself a big market for maritime industries recalling that European countries spend approximately 1 billion Euros annually on purchasing and running infrastructure to monitor the seas and oceans.

Research and innovation activities in these fields cannot be tackled either at national levels alone, or by a single sector alone. Coordinated actions are required for the maritime industry to strengthen Europe’s position in this important and complex economic field in a global market. Concentrated and targeted Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) funding on common research priorities will foster maritime and marine technologies in Europe. In this highly competitive sector networking, trans- national collaboration and joint initiatives are the keys to success.

The main objective of MarTERA is to address a number of actual challenges that can be identified as follows:

• National and European research in several marine and maritime sectors is often poorly coordinated. Synergies towards implementing common goals could only be achieved through better coordination and harmonizing the foci of funding programmes; 
• While collaborative projects funded by the EC are often quite large and complex to attract participation especially of SMEs, national funding schemes offer limited opportunities to collaborate with foreign partners, especially if cross-border funding is impossible; 
• The participation in trans-national projects offers advantages by using respective national funding, to tackle complex projects which cannot be accomplished by one nation alone; 
• Transnational projects provide a better chance for innovation to enter into new markets; 
• The cross-cutting perspective in technology development can lead to innovations capable of benefiting more than one sector, hence increasing the impact of the funded trans-national projects. 
• Bringing industry and research actors across borders together will strengthen Europe’s economic position underpinning Blue Growth. 
• Through trans-national cooperation it is feasible to create critical mass and focus excellence on precompetitive breakthroughs, which can benefit marine and maritime industries in general and make them more competitive in the longer term, thereby maintaining Europe’s competitive edge. 
• To create critical mass and address the needs for technologies in maritime operations.

• Bring new knowledge-intensive products and services for marine and maritime activities to the market.
• Increase the resource efficiency, security, safety and environmental compliance of maritime activities. 
• Help implement the European strategy on Key Enabling Technologies (KETs), in particular with regards to advanced materials and manufacturing. 
• Support trans-national, pan European research networks and synergies
• among national/regional and European EU research programmes
• Facilitate economies of scale and research investment efficiency by better alining national/regional research programmes, in particular within the Joint Programming Initiative “Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans”.
• Strengthening the dissemination of maritime and marine research results at the national and European level.

Hanna Lee Behrens (Research Council of Norway)

The pilot action Multi use of Infrastructure for Monitoring in the North Sea was proposed by The Netherlands in 2012.The action resulted in a workshop between scientists and funding bodies in 2013 and additional monitoring during various International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) cruises in 2014.

The action picked a number of indicators that require monitoring activities, to be added to current (fish stock) monitoring programmes. The intention was to develop pilot studies to test these on current monitoring activities as soon as possible. The process of organising the pilot, the needs (budgets, equipment, time) and the limitations (vessels, crew, permits) was of more interest than the actual data collected at sea. Such information was a useful input for the project of DG Environment to be able to calculate costs and design an efficient integrated monitoring programme.

The overall approach of the pilot action was directed towards the following three components: (1) setting up integrated monitoring surveys, (2) enhancing integration of monitoring efforts and (3) promoting data sharing and integrated information systems. The pilot action focused on integrated surveys but also considered the requirements of the other components during implementation. The basic requirements for the approach were as follows:

• Design future (fish stock) monitoring surveys to incorporate both the needs of the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy) through the EU (Data Collection Framework) within the frame of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the MSFD (Marine Strategy Framework Directive);
• Incorporate flexible, adaptive elements to the approach, allowing for the implementation of future needs as they emerge;
• Coordinate survey planning at the international level and at the scale of sea basins.

As such the pilot action aimed at incorporating monitoring for MSFD descriptors in the current International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS). The IBTS survey is coordinated internationally by experts from Germany, France, England, Scotland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, executed twice a year (first and third quarter of the year) covering the Greater North Sea.

• Workshop between scientific experts and funding bodies from interested countries on 9 November 2013.
• Additional monitoring proposals made at this workshop- of which a number were tried out by 7 countries during various IBTS cruises in 2014 (extending the 1st experience in 2013).
• The experiments at sea have resulted in some simple overviews of costs related to more integrated monitoring.
• The whole process has given an impression of issues and problems related to organising additional monitoring (funded or not from outside the regular funding for the survey) for Incorporating flexible, adaptive elements to the traditional approach, allowing for the implementation of future needs as they emerge. 

Anders Brudevoll 
E-mail: akb@rcn.no
Phone: +32 (0)2 626 16 60

• Introducing and structuring a European scientific interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral cooperation 
• Providing an interface between scientific expertise and operators 
• Contributing to cost and time efficient solutions 

Progress

• 2014: The JPI Oceans Strategic Advisory Board proposed an Action on munition in the sea
• 2015: The JPI Oceans Management Board approved the Action for implementation.
• 2016-2017: End-users’ priorities and national offers were identified.
• 2016-2017: JPI Oceans attended NATO Research workshops “Applied Vehicle Technology - Sea Dumped Munitions and Environmental Risks”.
• 2016-2017: JPI Oceans joined the large exercises at sea (REP16 and REP17) organized by the Portuguese Navy in the framework of NATO activities. 
• 2018-2019: The European Commission invited JPI Oceans to debates on unexploded munitions and launched a call “EMFF-Blue Economy-2018” for the development of innovative solutions and tools for unexploded ordnances.
• 2018: The ERA-Net COFUND MARTERA added the topic “munitions in the sea” in its joint calls. 
• 2018: Experts and end-users designed a framework for filling scientific gaps and the implementation of activities.
• 2019: JPI Oceans has been invited by the European Parliament at the hearing "Security risks posed by unexploded ordnances, sea-dumped and expired munitions", of the Security and Defence Committee.
• 2019: Participating countries agreed to implement joint activities via a joint call and provision of in-kind contributions (i.e. personnel, infrastructures, travels). 

Pier Francesco Moretti
Tel. +32 (0) 2 290 22 84

This means that criteria, including threshold values, methodological standards, and proper representation of descriptors, should be reviewed and amended periodically, in  light of scientific and technical progress. The efficient mechanisms for such revisions should also be built and strengthened, including the development of new and innovative observational schemes and techniques, available to Member States. This will lead to better consistency in the determination of the Good Environmental Status (GES) of different marine regions in the European Seas.

In such context, science can contribute to revising or introducing criteria, apply risk-based approaches, and provide rigorous definitions to sharpen and refine/specify the concept of thresholds and, in turn, of the GES. Science also holds responsibility to foster data harmonization and interoperability.

JPI Oceans has already addressed such challenges faced by Member States in fulfilling the requirements of many directives, for instance through the pilot action “Intercalibration for the EU Water Framework directive”, where the support of research jointly funded by the participating countries has provided impacting clues for solutions at policy level. Other JPI Oceans actions are already framed in the context of monitoring and assessment and of fostering Good Environmental Status, e.g. Munitions in the Sea or Ecological Aspects of Microplastics. It is anticipated that this JPI Oceans Joint Action will potentially improve coordination and have a role in sharing best practice among Member States.

Participating countries

Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Norway, Spain.

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) is the current regulatory European Union framework promoting actions for environmental assessments, defining environmental targets and setting programs of monitoring and measures, with the overall objective of maintaining or restoring a Good Environmental Status (GES) of European Seas and their resources.  The MSFD came into force in 2008 with the goal of achieving the GES by 2020. This interval represents the timeframe of the Directive and encompasses the necessary time for its implementation at national levels and six-year assessment cycles. The initial assessment and the Member States reports on the environmental status carried in the first implementation cycle have shown a range of complexity and difficulty in the implementation of the Directive. The results showed the necessity to significantly improve the quality and coherence/consistence of the determination of GES by the Member States. The Commission further recognized that criteria and methodological standards on GES of marine waters, specifications and standardised methods for monitoring and assessment, should be based on the best available science and additional scientific improvement. Technical progress is also needed and should be used when available.

Throughout the next decades, mankind aims to perform a step change in the use of the marine ecosystems, yet aware that the still limited knowledge in their functioning may hamper long-term exploitation of their resources. The MSFD is one of the initiatives undertaken so far for the exploitation of the ocean and sea with some precaution in order to prevent irreversible changes, as it has occurred on land in several cases, and to possibly revert or mitigate changes already caused by its human use. The MSFD is in fact part of a much wider set of EU policies which include the Blue Growth Strategy, the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive, the Common Fishery Policy, among others.

The Good Environmental Status is a relatively new concept, but after over ten years of its driven initiatives, it is timely to provide a refreshed perspective. This will be based on the activities outlined below, contributing to fulfilling the implementation of the MSFD and the policy message that lies in it, and will mainly focus on the questions that science will address in order to make the assessing process effective and efficient.

Science related to Good Environmental Status determination

The determination of the GES is based on the values of ocean variables associated to different ecosystem components, specified in the criteria of descriptors. These variables and related indicators should be relatively simple to measure and communicate, enabling a better common understanding across disciplines and better information transfer, providing policy makers with a clearer picture of changes and trends in the ocean system.

The strategies in monitoring, data interpretation and reporting should be suited to answer the key questions implicitly raised by Member Countries to identify the level of GES in their coastal zone and EEZ. This implies that an improved approach should take into account a clever exploitation of additional tools, new technologies, sensors and variables, and advanced use of computational methods to map and model environmental changes and impacts, including better interoperability and coupling between modelling and observational data.

Support to policy and governance

National implementation of the MSFD is subject to fragmentation.  In order to fulfil the MSFD requirements along the science - policy interface and the ecosystem approach, scientific syntheses of key ecosystem datasets need to be improved, towards a better understanding of the determination of GES in the European Seas. However, despite the wealth of scientific information produced across Europe, much of this knowledge is currently not presented in a format that can be readily used by policy makers and many stakeholders, and it is often overlooked even by the scientific community. Furthermore, the need for indicators of change, knowledge of pressures and their impacts should be linked to social and economic state-of-the-art indicators. Understanding and integrating environmental information with societal and economic developments and goals is also more and more essential to ensure effective policy of sustainable resource use.

Research support to policy and governance should thus set efficient and effective science-based information and tools, ensuring that the capacity of marine ecosystems to respond to human-induced changes is not compromised.

Data collection

Data, at national and EU level, appear sparse and heterogeneous in terms of targeted variables, quality, sampling methodologies and strategy, etc. This implies difficulties in providing usable data sets for interoperability, comparability or harmonization, and for calibration and validation activities. Indeed, a harmonized strategy is often lacking, due to what is available and/or feasible, based on national capacities.

Moreover, complexity cannot be approached by addressing the status of the system as the sum of single parts: data alone will never be enough to fully represent the spatial and temporal variability of the system. A categorization and process-based context of data collection is therefore needed, in terms of fitness for purpose, protocols, and quality control, in the light of a synergic use of data along with modelling and remote sensing analyses. While there are already good practices in management of measurements for different datasets, the scientific community calls for a better understanding of the “landscape” of the available in situ products, for example for the support of those model outputs and satellite algorithms that are able to capture, synoptically, the state of the ecosystem. The integration of in situ Earth Observations and modelling will serve to achieve the goal of defining “trajectories” along state variables, thus analysing the ecosystem as a whole, both space and time wise. Data collection, including inter-calibration of data and data management, usually underestimated, should focus on the dynamics of the ecosystem, within the contexts of an integrated observing system. JPI Oceans can promote the sharing and merging of data, addressing the problem of harmonization, as well as the main issue of data heterogeneity and assessment.

The Joint Action will be articulated in three main lines of activities: i) Knowledge sharing towards the determination of GES, through a series of workshops; ii) Joint integrated monitoring approaches, that will take advantage of all state of the art techniques and existing infrastructures; and iii) Test beds and augmented observatories, that will introduce new infrastructure for near real time monitoring at sea.

Knowledge sharing

A series of scientific expert workshops will be organized for sharing new knowledge and its practical understanding, conceptual approaches, identification of needs and clues, as a structured learning process to support “the official Task Groups”, the Marine Strategy Competence Centre and, in general, the entire community working and addressing the MSFD. These  will also set possible platforms (i.e., EU policy lab, knowledge hub, blue-bridge virtual research environments, etc.) and adapt the implementation of the MSFD to the different needs, for a better determination of GES. The workshops will also contribute to structure a dialogue between different experts and facilitate the transformation from a silos approach (still disciplinary) to a true ecosystemic approach, aiming at building rules of correspondence between different communities. The documentation will support decision makers to proceed in launching joint actions or revisions in implementing the MSFD.

For example, the expert workshops will represent the “knowledge environment” where priorities and specific activities focused on approaches at joint integrated observations will be identified and set up, creating a scientific ‘fil rouge’ and comprehensive conceptual support for this JPI Oceans action.

Joint Integrated monitoring approaches

The proposed integrated monitoring approaches should include shared, trans-disciplinary monitoring platforms and expertise. These must be linked to specific activities such as interdisciplinary workshops, integrated methodologies, development of technologies for monitoring relationships of biological (e.g., omics), biogeochemical, and physical processes, in order to support a common approach, synergies, and complementarity of efforts. This would also help to assist member state groups to implement monitoring programmes, according to adopted strategies, and to promote common systems, by transferring knowledge and methods, in practice, by direct hands-on joint actions at national level. The scope of all this is to achieve harmonized, wide-regional, innovative, cost-efficient, and effective assessment schemes of the GES, in particular, from the synergy of modelling, satellite, and in situ products.

To meet evolving ocean observation needs, the role of joint, integrated observation approaches as a part of the wider European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) will be taken into account. In this context, an integration of European research oceanographic fleet for conducting periodic MSFD-oriented surveys may create an appropriate framework towards better collaboration and interoperability of Member States, within emerging areas of activity, sharing the methodological advancements and coherent approaches. Continuous feedback with the Marine Copernicus community will also result crucial, in comparing CMEMS Ocean Monitoring Indicators (OMIs), as well as with the EMODnet organizations, which may help, for instance, in filling emerging gaps in marine data availability.  

Finally, an interesting win-win situation should be highlighted whereby ocean observations for environmental management, for monitoring the health of the marine ecosystem, and for marine safety and surveillance would (i) use common platforms, and (ii) serve to feed the research and economic sectors for added value generation and societal benefits. The same infrastructure for data collection and generation proposed here would thus be available for use and re-use by multiple users at no additional cost.  In an evolving knowledge-based society, access to high quality data, modelling and satellite observations, blended into smart technologies, are key ingredients to support sustainable blue growth, especially in coastal areas where many essential economic activities are occurring at the national scale.

Towards augmented observatories

Augmented observatories should be conceived as integrated observation, monitoring and experimentation infrastructures. Key elements will be the requirement of being autonomous and automated, provide multidisciplinary measurements, and obtain a high-resolution data collection and a real or near-real time link with the base station on the mainland. Furthermore, the observatory ideally allows a multi-platform, adaptive sampling strategy.

These new approaches and a harmonised view on specific and crucial indicators will provide an unprecedented opportunity for understanding the marine ecosystem. Setting up test beds that handle different aspects of the tasks and are conceived within the broader strategy of the ultimate augmented observatory is the way forward. The ultimate goal is to provide science-based novel approaches allowing the achievement of a GES and that more adequately describe the marine ecosystem and changes therein.

Our joint initiative aims to contribute to better understanding and achieving a GES in a more integrative way towards a sustainable use of the sea and support to the MSFD. This is challenging and requires long-term perspective and international coordination that a JPI Oceans Action can facilitate.

A scoping workshop focusing on “The contribution of Research for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive” took place in Brussels in December 2018. A first expert workshop on “Science for Good Environmental Status” was held in Capo Granitola (Sicily, Italy) from 6 to 7 June 2019. This workshop was hosted at the CNR premises.

The action has been officially adopted by JPI Oceans in November 2019. The first cross-disciplinary expert workshop after the adoption will take place from 23 to 25 June 2020 in Rome. It will be hosted by the BlueMed initiative. More information will be available soon.

Implementation options

Research and innovation: Institutional and/or structural funds from single countries. Joint calls to EU funding scheme. ERA-NET Cofund initiatives, INTERREG.

Connectivity: Establishing knowledge hubs and networks of experts.

Capacity building: Training, mobility of human resources, accessing/sharing marine infrastructures, procedures/agreements for transnational access and sharing of infrastructures, access to data;

Supporting actions: Workshops, reviews, impact assessments, test cases. These can be scaled in several contexts (supranational: UN, OPCW, NATO; Europe: EU, OSCE, European Council; National: ministers of environment, fishery etc., regional authorities), including existing accessing and sharing marine infrastructures (national ships, national coastal observatories), procedures and agreements for transnational access and sharing data.