17th EMODnet Steering Committee highlights the network’s progress towards centralisation, with an upgraded, unified, EMODnet data service coming soon in January 2023

The 17th Steering Committee (SC) met on 7 and 8 November 2022, with a key focus on the upcoming centralization of all EMODnet services into one unified EMODnet data service. Day 1 was an open session together with the EMODnet SC, Technical Working Group (TWG) and European Commission Marine Knowledge Expert Group (MKEG). Highlights from the seven EMODnet thematic lots and data ingestion, including latest outputs, partnerships and centralisation updates were presented by EMODnet Coordinators, together with an overview on the centralisation and unification of EMODnet services by the Central Portal team and EMODnet Secretariat. Day 2 included more dialogue and planning for two upcoming EMODnet flagship events in 2023, namely the 3rd edition of the EMODnet Open Sea Lab hackathon, kicking off on 8 February 2023 and the EMODnet Open Conference & Jamboree, taking place in late Autumn 2023. Updates were also given on EMODnet for global, including EMODnet’s coordination of the EU-China project EMOD-PACE and EMODnet’s diverse contributions to the UN Ocean Decade including co-chairing of the UN OD Data Coordination Group. In addition, EMODnet also presented its activities with the private sector, including key messages from EMODnet workshops on marine data for the offshore renewable energy sector that took place in September and October 2022. The agenda of the 17th SC meeting is available on the EC Maritime Forum The minutes will be available in due course.

The EC Marine Knowledge Expert Group joined the 17th EMODnet SC Open Session and also met for a second closed session on 29th November 2022. This allowed EC MKEG to further discuss with EMODnet experts the main outcomes of the EMOD-PACE EU-China project, and how EMODnet is actively upgrading its infrastructure to provide the backbone to the EU Digital Twin Ocean, in collaboration with Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) - Belgium, who coordinate the EMODnet Central Portal, and Mercator Ocean International who coordinate the Copernicus Marine Service.