The ocean, seas, and coasts are home to a rich variety of ecosystems. They provide a wealth of resources, regulate the climate, and offer many economic opportunities. Marine ecosystems are sensitive to long-term global change and combinations of multiple local pressures can affect them in unpredictable ways. More understanding of natural dynamics and effects is needed to enable sustainable use and conservation of these ecosystems. Given the range of threats, and the relative lack of knowledge about marine ecosystems, the United Nations (UN) declared the current decade (2021-2030) the “United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”.
States all across the world deploy monitoring programmes at national and regional level to support national marine governance goals, several regional policies, and the growing demands for sustainable use of resources. Research institutes operate research vessels and many other platforms and instruments for gathering in-situ observation data on a global scale. Their data is mostly used for scientific research, but also complements the data acquired by States through monitoring activities, gathering long time series.
In addition, marine data are also collected by private organisations in support of economic activities. Increasingly marine and ocean data and information is also derived from Earth Observation (EO). Space technologies, infrastructure, services and data nowadays provide also important input for addressing societal challenges and big global concerns.
Blue-Cloud at All-Atlantic 2021
This year's All-Atlantic R&I for a Sustainable Ocean: Ministerial High-level & Stakeholders Conference aims at taking existing dialogue and cooperation undertaken under the All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance to a new level. This Conference is co-organised by the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union Council and the European Commission.
On Thursday 3 June, Blue-Cloud is co-hosting a joint workshop with the All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AANChOR), the G7 Future of the Seas and Oceans Initiative, and the two Horizon 2020 projects iAtlantic and AtlantECO, as a side-event at the All-Atlantic 2021.
Towards an All-Atlantic Data Space for the Ocean
The purpose of this workshop is to provide a stage to discuss EU and international initiatives working to harmonise and facilitate data sharing across the Atlantic, and provide demonstrations of available tools, training, and the latest open science ‘blue cloud’ technologies to make data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
The workshop engages Atlantic partners in a dialogue to identify the technical needs and challenges of data sharing across the Atlantic ‘pole to pole’, and work to establish the necessary collaborations between nations and organisations required to jointly address regional and global ocean issues in the coming decade.
The two panels feature key members of the international ocean science and governance communities.
We are inviting stakeholders from across the Atlantic and beyond to take part in this workshop and discover the past, present, and future of an All-Atlantic Data Space for the Ocean.
Register now
Check out the co-located All-Atlantic Data & Policy Forum on 31 May
