July 2019

11 Free training workshops announced for the Open Sea Lab II Hackathon

It’s only five more weeks to the second edition of the EMODnet Open Sea Lab II Hackathon. The organisers are delighted to welcome OVH and MSP Challenge Simulation Platform to hold workshops at the second edition of Open Sea Lab! At least 11 different workshops will be held, ranging from Data Visualisation and Machine Learning, to Solution Design and How to Pitch. Furthermore, some great prizes have been confirmed by Greenbridge and OVH. The winning team members will not leave empty-handed! Finally, the EMODnet Secretariat has made available 20 rooms for students for three nights to attend Open Sea Lab II – apply now!

Find out more about the OSL II workshops and prizes

EMODnet welcomes four new Associated Partners

Spring 2019 has seen a new wave of interest from industry and wider stakeholders to join the EMODnet network Associated Partnership Scheme. We are pleased to welcome four new Associated Partners: Thames Estuary, Helzel, Nodalpoint and Saildrone. EMODnet established the Associated Partnership Scheme to enable interested stakeholders to contribute and fully benefit from the network’s broad range of tools and activities. The application procedure is straightforward, free of charge and provides many advantages for both associated partners and the network itself.

EMODnet to expand its horizon with iAtlantic

On 18-20 June 2019, the EMODnet Secretariat joined 33 pan-Atlantic partners for the kick-off meeting of iAtlantic. This new 4-year European Horizon 2020 Project will collect Atlantic deep and open-ocean ecosystem data and integrate it with ocean circulation and connectivity models linked with climatic data and forecasts. The aim of the project is to improve our capability to predict how global change will affect the Atlantic ecosystems and inform sustainable management decisions.

Early stage input by EMODnet to the open data policy of iAtlantic will also ensure that the wealth of data and data products generated by iAtlantic are made FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable) via key marine observation and data sharing facilities, in particular via EMODnet. The EMODnet Secretariat will also design and populate an advanced web-based GIS-tool to visualize iAtlantic geospatial data produced at 12 specific case study regions. This contributes to the spatial and temporal sustainable management goal of iAtlantic and allows project data to be visualized alongside other open access data from EMODnet and wider web services. This ultimately promotes the use of iAtlantic and wider EMODnet data by wider stakeholders, including maritime industry and policy makers, to strengthen the science evidence-based approach to ocean management.

Surface vessel Mahi One starts its autonomous transatlantic adventure!

Project Mahi is a project driven by four engineers who have built an unmanned, autonomous surface vessel, propelled by an electric motor supplied with electricity from the solar panels. After four years of hard work, the team finally launched the vessel, called Mahi One, on the 25th of July at 9 am. Mahi One was released from Les Sables d’Olonne (France), and will attempt to autonomously cross the Atlantic Ocean towards Point-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) in the Caribbean. This trip of 7000 km is expected to take about 3 months. Equipped with sensors, the vessel will collect atmospheric and oceanographic data, which will be sent via a satellite connection to their website. The data will also be published on the EMODnet Central Portal geoviewer.

EMODnet Geology hosts session at 2019 AGU Fall Meeting: register now and submit an abstract!

EMODnet Geology partner Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) will organise a session on seafloor mapping at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest geoscience meeting in the world. The meeting will take place in San Francisco, from 9 until 13 December 2019.
Within the session, named "Beyond Hydrography: Seafloor Mapping as Critical Data for Understanding Our Oceans", varied uses for mapping data will be showcased. The Seafloor Mapping theme is a critical baseline dataset for a variety of marine studies and technological developments.
Another interesting session to attend is "Standards for the Benefit of Science and Society". This session, co-chaired by the IEEE, will focus on the development and adoption of standards and best practices in light of the F.A.I.R.ness of data, including sociological factors.