The ocean provides us with vital climate and food services by absorbing 30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions and supplying 17% of animal proteins to the world’s population. However, we are still far from accurately estimating these services using the state-of-the-art operational models at the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) Monitoring and Forecasting Centres (MFCs). The main aim of SEAMLESS is to provide CMEMS MFCs with unprecedented capabilities to deliver indicators of climate-change impacts and food security in ocean ecosystems, such as particulate carbon export and plankton phenology. The central hypothesis of SEAMLESS is that new ensemble data assimilation methods can better estimate crucial ecosystem indicators by integrating the new generation of European Copernicus satellite observations and in-situ ocean data. Specifically, our approach will link coherently biogeochemical and hydrodynamic simulations. The hypothesis is supported by our previous work, in which we improved the MFCs’ model simulations of the plankton stocks at the base of the marine food web by assimilating biogeochemical and physical data from satellites, Biogeochemical-Argo floats and gliders. SEAMLESS will develop a new assimilation prototype that will expand simulations to plankton dynamics and related biogeochemical processes, e.g., plankton phenology and carbon export. This prototype will be disseminated to CMEMS stakeholders and the wider oceanographic community. To guarantee the integration of SEAMLESS into CMEMS, we have assembled a team with outstanding expertise and track records for all the key project components, which includes CMEMS MFC core developers, and will be supported by policy, blue-growth and academic stakeholders. On project completion, six CMEMS MFCs will be able to add new and improved products on water quality, carbon cycle and trophic webs to their portfolios, ultimately allowing users to exploit more sustainably ocean ecosystem services.

Recent devastating earthquakes and induced seismicity near infrastructures must become the centrepiece of analysis in reducing risk and increasing resilience, facing up to global urban population growth in the coming decades and the concentration of wealth in cities. The prediction of seismic ground motion and response of structures are key issues in reduction of seismic urban risk. There is therefore a demand for highly trained scientists with a broad understanding of engineering seismology and earthquake engineering, skills being essential in academic research, in private companies with activities related to risk mitigation and energy facilities and for policy makers. The URBASIS project aims to provide a multi-disciplinary training platform for ESR in order to develop their individual project and to promote their entrepreneurship and their employability toward the academic, private and insurance or decision-making sector. High-quality supervision of the ESR will be ensured through the international recognition of the URBASIS partners. A comprehensive set of transferable skills will be developed through innovative and interdisciplinary joint research projects between academic and non-academic partners on the prediction of seismic hazard in urban areas considering low probability/high consequences events and induced seismicity related to the exploitation of energy resources; the seismic ground motion prediction within the non-free-field urban area; the coupling between ground motion and structures/infrastructures responses for natural and induced seismicity including time dependency vulnerability; and the systemic risk of interconnected urban systems. URBASIS will create a lasting collaboration for the establishment of a European network of academic and non-academic experts, improving the interface with decision-makers. Advanced capacities in modelling and predicting seismic impact in cities will be got, putting the urban environment as the centrepiece of URBASIS.