The Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance Coordination and Support Action (AORAC-SA) is designed to provide scientific, technical and logistical support to the European Commission in developing and implementing trans-Atlantic Marine Research Cooperation between the European Union, the United States of America and Canada. The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) is carried out within the framework of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance as outlined in the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation (May 2013). Recognising the evolving nature of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, the hallmark of this proposal is that it is flexible, responsive, inclusive, efficient, innovative, value-adding and supportive. To support the Commission in negotiations with the USA and Canada on trans-Atlantic Ocean Research Cooperation, the AORAC-SA support and governance structure comprises a Secretariat and Management Team, guided by a high-level Operational Board, representative of the major European Marine Research Programming and Funding Organisations as well as those of the USA and Canada. This structure is further able to draw on significant marine research expertise and experience through its partner organisations The CSA, reporting to the Commission representatives of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, will be responsible for the organisation of expert and stakeholder meetings, workshops and conferences required by the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance and related to identified research priorities (e.g. marine ecosystem-approach, observing systems, marine biotechnology, aquaculture, ocean literacy, seabed and benthic habitat mapping), support actions (e.g. shared access to infrastructure, dissemination and knowledge transfer, establishment of a knowledge sharing platform) and other initiatives as they arise, taking into account related Horizon 2020 supported trans-Atlantic projects (e.g. BG1, BG8 and BG13) and on-going national and EU collaborative projects (e.g. FP7).

The recent changes of the Arctic and the increased economic activity in the region have triggered a demand for accurate sea-ice and weather predictions, for information on the status of the Arctic Ocean, and for complex predictions of future scenarios. To address these issues of particular environmental and societal concern and to develop policy recommendations for a sustainable usage of the Arctic Ocean and its resources, the Arctic science community needs world-class research icebreakers (RIs) to access the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. The current shortage of availability of RIs and a not optimally coordinated polar research fleet impedes Europe’s capacity to investigate this region. There is thus an urgent need for providing European researchers with better RI capacities for the Arctic. ARICE aims at reaching this goal with the existing polar fleet by: 1) Networking ARICE will develop strategies to ensure the optimal use of the existing polar research vessels at a European and international level, working towards an International Arctic Research Icebreaker Consortium which will share and jointly fund operational ship time on the available RIs. 2) Trans-national access (TNA) ARICE will provide TNA to six key European and international RIs for European scientists, based on scientific excellence of submitted proposals: - PRV Polarstern, Germany - IB Oden, Sweden - RV Kronprins Haakon, Norway (under construction, to be operative in 2017) - RRS Sir David Attenborough, United Kingdom (under construction, to be operative in 2018) - CCGS Amundsen, Canada - RV Sikuliaq, United States of America 3) Joint research activities ARICE will improve the RIs’ services by partnering with maritime industry on a “ships and platforms of opportunity” programme and by exploring into new technologies that will lead to an improvement of ship-based and autonomous measurements in the Arctic Ocean. ARICE will implement virtual and remote access of data via an innovative 3D Virtual Icebreaker.

The rapid changes occurring in the Polar Regions are significantly influencing global climate with consequences for global society. European polar research has contributed critical knowledge to identifying the processes behind these rapid changes but, in contrast to lower latitudes, datasets from the Polar Regions are still insufficient to fully understand and more effectively predict the effects of change on our climate and society. This situation can only be improved by a more holistic integrated scientific approach, a higher degree of coordination of polar research and closer cooperation with all relevant actors on an international level as requested in the Horizon 2020 work programme. The objectives of EU-PolarNet are to establish an ongoing dialogue between policymakers, business and industry leaders, local communities and scientists to increase mutual understanding and identify new ways of working that will deliver economic and societal benefits. The results of this dialogue will be brought together in a plan for an Integrated European Research Programme that will be co-designed with all relevant stakeholders and coordinated with the activities of many other polar research nations beyond Europe, including Canada and the United States, with which consortium partners already have productive links. This consortium brings together well-established, world-class, multi-disciplinary research institutions whose science programmes are internationally recognised for excellence. Alongside these scientific capabilities, the national programmes represented in this proposal possess a unique array of infrastructure and operational expertise to support science in both Polar Regions. The consortium is uniquely well positioned to significantly enhance Europe’s capabilities to undertake state of the art science and cost-efficiently operate infrastructure in the hostile polar environments.

Blue-Action will provide fundamental and empirically-grounded, executable science that quantifies and explains the role of a changing Arctic in increasing predictive capability of weather and climate of the Northern Hemisphere.To achieve this Blue-Action will take a transdisciplinary approach, bridging scientific understanding within Arctic climate, weather and risk management research, with key stakeholder knowledge of the impacts of climatic weather extremes and hazardous events; leading to the co-design of better services.This bridge will build on innovative statistical and dynamical approaches to predict weather and climate extremes. In dialogue with users, Blue-Arctic will take stock in existing knowledge about cross-sectoral impacts and vulnerabilities with respect to the occurrence of these events when associated to weather and climate predictions. Modeling and prediction capabilities will be enhanced by targeting firstly, lower latitude oceanic and atmospheric drivers of regional Arctic changes and secondly, Arctic impacts on Northern Hemisphere climate and weather extremes. Coordinated multi-model experiments will be key to test new higher resolution model configurations, innovative methods to reduce forecast error, and advanced methods to improve uptake of new Earth observations assets are planned. Blue-Action thereby demonstrates how such an uptake may assist in creating better optimized observation system for various modelling applications. The improved robust and reliable forecasting can help meteorological and climate services to better deliver tailored predictions and advice, including sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales, will take Arctic climate prediction beyond seasons and to teleconnections over the Northern Hemisphere. Blue-Action will through its concerted efforts therefore contribute to the improvement of climate models to represent Arctic warming realistically and address its impact on regional and global atmospheric and oceanic circulation.