Digital Ocean Forum, Paris, France

On 20-21 April 2022, over 70 experts from the marine, maritime, and wider domains convened in Paris for the first Digital Ocean Forum, organised by Mercator Ocean International with the support from the European Commission. Many EMODnet experts from the Secretariat, Central Portal, Data Ingestion and thematics eg. Biology, were invited to join expert Working Groups, to further define a collective community vision for a user-driven Digital Twin Ocean. Tjess Hernandez, VLIZ and Conor Delaney, Technical Coordinator of the EMODnet Secretariat are co-Chairs of the Working Group on “Accessing Ocean Data and new sensors” presenting WG recommendations for the diversity of ocean environmental and human activities data that will be relevant for a future Digtial Twin Ocean, and the importance of building on existing infrastructure including the EMODnet and Copernicus Marine Services. As a user-driven service, EMODnet was also active in a WG on Ocean intelligence and services, with EMODnet Secretariat Deputy Head Kate Larkin bringing insights into how to best connect marine data to society, including citizen engagement, co-design, citizen science and ocean literacy.

The Digital Twin Ocean will build upon existing digital assets and EMODnet is a close and committed collaborator with Copernicus Marine Service to provide the marine data infrastructure and services fit-for-use for the digital age, as a key component and reliable provider of high quality, standardised and integrated marine data, enabling marine knowledge generation for all. Building on the existing partnership between EMODnet and Copernicus, the Digital Twin Ocean is a huge opportunity and catalyst for such infrastructure evolution, which includes the centralisation of all EMODnet data, data products and services by the end of 2022.