COLUMBUS, a flagship Horizon 2020 project, held its first conference in Brussels on 2 March. About 60 participants attended, including the 26-member-strong consortium, the COLUMBUS External Advisory Board, as well as MEP Ricardo Serrão Santos and Head of Marine Resources Unit at DG R&I Sigi Gruber and the COLUMBUS project officer Marco Weydert. COLUMBUS is… Read more »

EuroGOOS Chair, Erik Buch, has been appointed as member of the Programme Board and observer to the Executive Board of GEO (the global Group on Earth Observations), as the GOOS representative. The GEO Programme Board is tasked to advise on the GEO implementation plan for the new period of 2016-2025. The GEO 2016 Work Programme bridges the… Read more »

In 2015, EuroGOOS established the Kostas Nittis Medal in the memory of EuroGOOS Secretary General and strategic leader Dr. Kostas Nittis (1964-2014). The Kostas Nittis Medal is accompanied by a grant and awarded to a young marine professional within the operational oceanography and broader ocean observing community. The Kostas Nittis Medal and the grant amounting… Read more »

The Ocean Enterprise – a study of US for-profit and not-for-profit activity in the oceans has been released this month. It shows that ocean measurement, observation, and forecasting accounts for billions of dollars of the U.S. economy annually and provides up to 30,000 jobs. This is the first national-level assessment of the scale and scope of the ‘ocean enterprise’…. Read more »

Directors, Presidents and Data Managers from 14 leading German marine institutes as well as the German Marine Research Consortium attended the last week’s EuroGOOS-EMODnet Data Workshop in Hamburg. The workshop, hosted by BSH, discussed the current state of data availability and coordination in Germany and Europe in general. Patrick Gorringe, EuroGOOS, presented the current European… Read more »

EMODnet physics data portal is constantly adding new features. The new wind product will interest a wide range of users, from shipping companies, fisheries and wind power industry to scientists and modellers. Features available include: A wind rose showing wind direction for last 60 days; Hourly strength of the wind speed for the past 24… Read more »

The European Commission released a summary document on the results of the 2015 EC consultation on ocean governance. The responses received clearly stressed that the current framework for ocean governance is not effective enough but it is not necessarily because of the framework’s flaws, but rather because of inefficient implementation and insufficient coordination. The system… Read more »

The EuroGOOS Executive Directors Board met at the EuroGOOS office in Brussels on 27 and 28 January. The meeting addressed the implementation of the EuroGOOS strategy in the EuroGOOS regional systems (ROOSes), as well as the working groups and operational task teams. The Board welcomed the ongoing work with the global networks GEO and JCOMM… Read more »

The European Environment Agency (EEA) have launched a stakeholder survey on the Copernicus programme. This survey aims at gathering information on user needs which will help defining the high level requirements for the next generation of Copernicus Space Component. Both existing and potential new users are asked to participate. The questionnaire can be filled in directly on the web. The personal… Read more »

The full text of the UN’s First Global Integrated Marine Assessment (The World Ocean Assessment) was released online today. It had been welcomed by the General Assembly in December.  It was the first time that the General Assembly was provided with a comprehensive scientific and socioeconomic assessment to guide its decisions on oceans. The report… Read more »