Restoring and maintaining the resilience of the Black Sea ecosystem, while enabling a sustainable exploitation of its natural resources is vital. A better coordination and alignment of research and innovation efforts alongside developing improved knowledge base and joint infrastructures could substantially support this timely challenge. Towards this end the Burgas Vision Paper was produced, by an initiative supported by EC, as the key framework document for a shared vision for a productive, healthy, resilient, sustainable and better-valued Black Sea by 2030. It addresses the four key pillars on which a new Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and its Implementation Plan can be built on: (1) Addressing fundamental Black Sea research challenges, (2) Developing products, solutions and clusters underpinning Black Sea Blue Growth, (3) Building of critical support systems and innovative Infrastructures, (4) Education and capacity building. Building on this recently emerging policy framework, the core contribution of the Black Sea CONNECT CSA will be to scientifically, technically and logistically support the Black Sea Blue Growth Initiative towards the implementation of the Burgas Vision Paper, with a view on boosting the blue economy in the region. The overall objective is to coordinate the development of the SRIA and its implementation plan both at national and regional level. The SRIA and its implementation plan will guide stakeholders from academia, funding agencies, industry, policy and society to address together the fundamental Black Sea challenges, to promote blue growth and economic prosperity of the Black Sea region, to build critical support systems and innovative research infrastructure and to improve education and capacity building. The project will support the design of synergistic activities such as developing an operational network of funders, new transnational joint activities and achieving the knowledge transfer.

The core Argo system is based on an array of profiling floats which measure every 10 days temperature and salinity throughout the deep global oceans, down to 2000 meters, and deliver data both in real time for operational users and, after careful scientific quality control, for climate change research and monitoring. Argo data policy is fully open and guarantees a free access of the data to all interested users. A new phase of the Argo programme is now being implemented at international level. This new phase has two main objectives: 1/ sustain the existing global array and 2/ extend its capabilities to greater depths and to biogeochemistry. The present target is to maintain a network of at least 4000 floats, with ¼ carrying biogeochemical parameters and ¼ going to abyssal oceans. There is more than ever a pressing need to better observe the oceans. This is recognised at the highest political levels (G7, IPCC and its Special Report on the ocean and cryosphere). Developing Argo and its extensions is, in particular, one the top priorities of the G7 Future of Oceans. The overarching objective of Euro-Argo RISE (Euro-Argo Research Infrastructure Sustainability and Enhancement) is to enhance and extend the capabilities of the Argo network to provide essential ocean observations to answer new societal and scientific challenges. Euro-Argo RISE project is needed now to allow Europe to timely develop the European contribution to this new phase of Argo and engage with new teams. Euro-Argo RISE aims to secure and improve the current network as well as to set up and organise on the long term the new components of the network, extending Argo observations towards biogeochemistry, greater depth, partially ice-covered and shallower water regions within a long-term sustainability plan supported by Member States and funding agencies.