Ocean observing is executed and financed by nations according to their national interest and needs, but aligned with European and international agreements and directives. ObsSea4Clim brings together key European and international actors within ocean observing science, climate assessment, Earth System modelling, data sharing and standards, with users of oceanographic products and services with the goals of: - improving sustained and multipurpose observations vital to European and global climate requirements, and - delivering an improved observation framework based on EOV/ECVs and embedded in a Rolling Review of Requirements approach. ObsSea4Clim will: - improve regional and global climate assessments and - provide projections and actionable indicators for sustainable development provided. The work program is organized around four building blocks (TRL7-8): 1- the EOV/ECV concept, 2- the regional ocean indicator concepts, 3- the nations’ multi-purpose (climate, services, ocean health) ocean observing, 4- the integration with European and global initiatives. ObsSea4Clim will make use of ocean climate application areas such as: sea ice loss, ocean transports, stratification, sea level, ocean warming and marine heat waves and ocean mesoscale. Regional observing will be transformed into an EOV/ECVs framework suitable for regional and global climate products, ESM development (CMIP7) and indicators. ObsSea4Clim will also link to the Mission Restore our Ocean 2030 lighthouse basins. AI methods will control data quality and unlock EOV/ECVs from existing data repositories. ObsSea4Clim will promote the implementation of FAIR/CARE data, enabling and advocating their use for versatile applications and referenced to an EOV/ECV framework. ObsSea4Clim will actively lead the dialogue with European and international climate and data initiatives to ensure the necessary exchanges for implementing the ObsSea4Clim results into the international system. In this way, ObsSea4Clim will ensure sustained EU leadership in the ocean–climate–biodiversity science nexus at a global level.

The objective of SponGES is to develop an integrated ecosystem-based approach to preserve and sustainably use vulnerable sponge ecosystems of the North Atlantic. The SponGES consortium, an international and interdisciplinary collaboration of research institutions, environmental non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, will focus on one of the most diverse, ecologically and biologically important and vulnerable marine ecosystems of the deep-sea - sponge grounds – that to date have received very little research and conservation attention. Our approach will address the scope and challenges of EC’s Blue Growth Call by strengthening the knowledge base, improving innovation, predicting changes, and providing decision support tools for management and sustainable use of marine resources. SponGES will fill knowledge gaps on vulnerable sponge ecosystems and provide guidelines for their preservation and sustainable exploitation. North Atlantic deep-sea sponge grounds will be mapped and characterized, and a geographical information system on sponge grounds will be developed to determine drivers of past and present distribution. Diversity, biogeographic and connectivity patterns will be investigated through a genomic approach. Function of sponge ecosystems and the goods and services they provide, e.g. in habitat provision, bentho-pelagic coupling and biogeochemical cycling will be identified and quantified. This project will further unlock the potential of sponge grounds for innovative blue biotechnology namely towards drug discovery and tissue engineering. It will improve predictive capacities by quantifying threats related to fishing, climate change, and local disturbances. SponGES outputs will form the basis for modeling and predicting future ecosystem dynamics under environmental changes. SponGES will develop an adaptive ecosystem-based management plan that enables conservation and good governance of these marine resources on regional and international levels.

HiAOOS will develop, implement, and validate several ocean observing technologies to improve data collection in the ice-covered Arctic Ocean. A network of multipurpose moorings will be deployed for two years in the deep Nansen and Amundsen Basins. The network will provide point measurements of ocean and sea ice and active and passive acoustic data for several applications, including acoustic thermometry, geo-positioning of underwater floats, detection of marine mammals, geohazards and human generate noise. The mooring system will build on the successful basin wide Coordinated Arctic Acoustic Thermometry Experiment-CAATEX experiment and extend the existing Mooring Observations from the Atlantic Water Inflow Experiment (ATWAIN). A new generation of moorings will be developed where data can be transferred to the surface using ROV or winch technology. Ice buoys with new acoustic array technology will be developed for testing of underwater geo-positioning, local navigation networks for glider operations and for localization of geophysical events. These developments will advance several research infra structures with new observing technology and create new opportunities for forefront research. To unlock the capabilities of the new observing system methods and tools will be developed to analyse and visualize the observations for different applications using digital methods and technologies including machine learning. The methods and tools will be ingested into a digital platform blue Insight, and available through Zenodo. Training and use cases will use the platform to train different user groups associated with research infrastructures, research communities and technology developers. All data, methods and tools will be available following the FAIR principles. Field experiments will be carried out every summer from 2024 to 2026, and every field experiment will be assessed with respect to environemntal impact prior to the start of the experiment.