Mission Ocean, seas and water aims at restoring the health of our ocean and waters by 2030, as a major contributor to the European Green Deal and the Sustainable Development Goals. Research and innovation will be a key component of the Mission, which will link initiatives across disciplines, mobilise policymakers, stakeholders and citizens, and leverage public and private investments. PREP4BLUE overarching objective is to facilitate a successful first phase (2022-2025) of the Mission, by developing the co-creation and co-implementation R&I modalities required to achieve the Mission objectives and preparing the ground for inspiring and engaging citizens and stakeholders. The project is designed to deliver a series of tools, guidelines, methodologies and recommendations tested through pilots, which will interlink, leverage and optimise activities among the projects funded under the Mission. Our systemic approach will foster cohesion and connectivity between knowledge and technology, funding, regulation, education and skills, social structures and co-creation with R&I actors, citizens and stakeholders. PREP4BLUE multidisciplinary and multi-actor consortium is actively engaged in basin-based strategies and related R&I activities, with strong experience in co-developing business models and recommendations for policy-makers, expertise in social sciences related to participative democracy and citizen engagement and excellent track-record in methodologies for knowledge management and transfer, as well as in stakeholder engagement. PREP4BLUE will also carry out strategic actions to assure the alignment of our CSA with the evolution of the Mission components, including the Mission Core Network, other contributors to the Mission and other Missions. Our project will contribute to preparedness and engagement of all relevant stakeholders to empower them to play an active role in the Mission.

OKEANO will provide support to the All-Atlantic Ocean Research and Innovation Alliance (AAORIA), enabling delivery on the goals of the All-Atlantic Declaration and empowering an All-Atlantic Ocean community to sustainably manage the Atlantic Ocean. With objectives that reflect the Alliance motto Connecting-Cooperating-Acting, OKEANO will serve to scale and transition the Alliance to a long-term, sustainable and highly impactful international partnership, capable of delivering transformative science and innovation, and concrete benefits for Atlantic communities. It will provide professional support to the core activities of the AAORIA as well as advice on effective long-term governance frameworks and legacy, consolidate and strengthen existing initiatives aligned with the priorities of the All-Atlantic Declaration, facilitate structured dialogue and coordination between the AAORIA and All-Atlantic stakeholders at national, regional and international levels, design and carry out inclusive capacity development initiatives for Atlantic communities, develop an All-Atlantic Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda to support the coordination of marine and maritime research and innovation activities with All-Atlantic stakeholders, and maximise the impact of the project through effective and engaging dissemination, exploitation and communication activities. OKEANO will also support to the organisation, monitoring, communication, and outreach activities of three All-Atlantic Fora. The consortium comprises 15 organisations, ensuring a comprehensive geographical coverage along and across the Atlantic Ocean of countries that endorse the All-Atlantic Declaration. Furthermore, the consortium represents a balanced mixture of unique capabilities, knowledge and access to relevant stakeholder and citizen networks needed to pursue the objectives of the project.

The main ambition of AANChOR is to promote the implementation of the South Atlantic Research and Innovation Flagship initiative and the Belém Statement (BS), signed by the EU, Brazil and South Africa in 2017, to upscale research and innovation cooperation within the Atlantic basin, from Antarctica to the Arctic. AANChOR will pursue this ambition by providing the EC and the BS Implementation Committee (to be established by signatories of the Statement) with a framework to identify and contribute to the implementation of concrete long-term collaborative activities, reinforcing international cooperation between Europe and tropical and South Atlantic countries and connecting with the challenges and research needs of the North Atlantic Ocean. AANChOR will be responsible for launching a multi-stakeholder platform to identify collaborative activities, building on national and international ongoing initiatives such as the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance and addressing activities aimed at reinforcing capacity building, promoting academia-industry knowledge transfer for an enhanced ocean innovation, developing common standards, enhancing citizen awareness and ocean literacy and converging and aligning R&I infrastructure initiatives. To contribute to the implementation of the identified joint activities, AANChOR will provide seed money for the first development stages of selected joint pilot actions and support the identification of the most appropriate existing funding mechanisms and tools for further development of the selected activities. AANChOR will also define long term measures for the sustainability of the cooperation framework beyond the lifetime of the CSA. Recognising the evolving nature of the BS implementation, flexibility has been incorporated into the structure of the CSA allowing its activities adjustment wherever needed. The consortium brings together partners from 5 European Countries, 2 Latin American countries and 2 African countries.

The European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) is the foundation of European ocean knowledge. The core Marine Research Infrastructures (MRIs) focused on ocean observing (EMSO, EURO-ARGO and ICOS ERICs; EuroFleets+, EuroGoShip, GROOM RI, JERICO RI and MINKE as INFRA projects) are the main providers of in situ ocean data for the EOOS and Copernicus, and the primary managers of instrumental capacity supporting fundamental research. These MRIs are aware that the lack of effective cross coordination prevents them from fully supporting frontier research, while the lack of integration makes it difficult to reach a critical mass for EOOS and results in significant cost duplication. Accordingly, AMRIT gathers these MRIs together with OceanOPS/WMO international coordination experience with the objective to: - ensure seamless operation of marine observation platforms ; - ensure the full nominal use of sensors and accelerate their evolution ; - exploit the complementarity of the various observation platforms ; - ensure the overall coherence of the ocean data value chain. To achieve these objectives, AMRIT will design and implement an EOOS Technical Support Center (EOOS TSC) for - a fully integrated information service across the data value chain from early planning stages to final delivery to users; - a cross-platform fully standardised data acquisition methodology for Essential Ocean Variables; - a collaborative federal structure to operate these services, relying on the ERIs and their members. The EOOS TSC will be the cornerstone in establishing and maintaining the EOOS, upon which European ocean observing can be strengthened in the coming decades. AMRIT will provide a catalyst for the development and consolidation of MRIs throughout Europe, providing a benchmark for operational coordination and collaboration. AMRIT will advance EOOS in line with its 2023-2027 Strategy and beyond, and the European Commission's ambitions for sharing responsibility in ocean observing across Europe.

The MMinE-SwEEPER project will advance knowledge, capability and capacity in Europe for dealing with marine munition in the non-military aspect of UXO-clearance. 21 partners from 7 EU and 2 associated countries bring experience and capabilities from the civil science community (9), military research (3), coast/border guards or EOD-services (4) as well as industry (3) and intergovernmental organizations (2). Jointly they will work in 8 technical work packages to a) advance automated munition detection, identification and data analyzing technologies and software, b) environmental monitoring of chemical contaminants, c) predictions of UXO-burial, contaminants spread and the state-of-corrosion, and will d) enable secure exchange of sensitive data (64% of person months). Three additional WPs will compile existing knowledge, learn about the legal responsibilities and technical approaches, assess remediation and mitigation measures and create training material for building European capacity (14% PM). Two WPs will engage in an intense stakeholder dialog and dissemination/outreach activities by utilizing capacities already existing at HELCOM and JPIO (14% PM). Outcomes with respect to specific technical advancements will include a) AI-supported detection of munition in hydroacoustic spatial mapping data (MBES, SSS; SAS), b) detection of buried munition objects (magnetic, SBP, LF-SAS), c) AI-supported object identification in optical and acoustic cameras and d) implementing trained AI-models into Smart-AUVs and -USVs for adaptive and cooperative mission execution. All this will utilize secure data exchange possibilities through a demonstrator data platform that will be refined during the project. Industry partners see a great benefit in developing technologies that later can be advanced further to become commercial products. At the end of the project most TRLs will be at 5 to 6, meaning they have been applied under real conditions and proved their applicability.