Budget: € 9.99m for 4 years (1st September 2015 – 31st August 2019)
Partners: 34 expert partners from 15 countries.
Coordinator: IFREMER, French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, France, (Mr. Patrick Farcy)
The coastal area is the most productive and dynamic environment of the world ocean with significant resources and services for mankind.
JERICO-NEXT emphasizes that the complexity of the coastal ocean cannot be well understood if interconnection between physics, biogeochemistry and biology is not guaranteed. Such an integration requires new technological developments allowing continuous monitoring of a larger set of parameters.
Our vision is to improve and innovate the cooperation in coastal observatories in Europe by implementing the coastal part of a European Ocean Observing System, to cooperate with other European initiatives as ESFRI (EURO-ARGO, EMSO, EMBRC), Integrated Infrastructures (FIXO3, …), OCEAN OF TOMORROW sensors innovation project (SenseOCEAN, NEXOS), the emerging European biological network (EMBRC) and EMODnet to contribute to provide services to the research community and the society.
In the continuity of JERICO (FP7), the objective of JERICO-NEXT consists in strengthening and enlarging a solid and transparent European network in providing operational services for the timely, continuous and sustainable delivery of high quality environmental data and information products related to marine environment in European coastal seas.
Other objectives are: Support European coastal research communities, enable free and open access to data, enhance the readiness of new observing platform networks by increasing the performance of sensors, showcase of the adequacy of the so-developed observing technologies and strategies, propose a medium-term roadmap for coastal observatories through a permanent dialogue with stakeholders.
In order to reach its ambitious objectives, JERICO-NEXT will concentrate the efforts on 3 coordinated activities (i.e. NA, TNA and JRA). The work flow is organized in 8 work packages plus one dedicated to the coordination (WP9). WP1, 2, 5 and 8 are devoted to Networking Activities (NA) with objective to federate the consortium around actions strategically important to sustain the JERICO-RI on long term. Joint Research Activities (JRA) are including technical and methodological developments in WP3. In addition, the Joint Research Activity projects (JRAPs) are relevant to the 6 JERICO-NEXT thematic areas implemented in WP4. Support Actions to the infrastructure are distributed in WP6 for Virtual Access and in WP7 for Trans National Access.
• Activity 1 – Four Networking actions (WP 1, 2, 5, 8) to:
a) Minimize the fragmentation of European coastal observatories
b) Reduce the lack of synergy in methodologies and measuring systems in observing facilities
c) Fulfill the needs for data exchange and communicate the results of the infrastructure
– NA1 – Integrated Science Strategy and Governance from local to European Scales (WP1)
– NA2 – Harmonization of technologies and methodologies – technical strategy (WP2)
– NA3 – Data management (WP5)
– NA4 – Outreach, communication and engagement (WP8)
By the definition of a “coastal observatory label” and the consolidation of a pan-European strategic roadmap, JERICO-NEXT will contribute to helping the observatories to be funded nationally or regionally, thus guaranteeing the sustainability of the network.
• Activity 2 – Two Transnational Access and Virtual Access programs (WP 6 and 7):
For obvious practical reasons, only parts of the JERICO-RI will be proposed for Trans National Access (TNA) through open calls (WP8 task 8.8). Indeed, the present heterogeneity of the existing national facilities induces a strict selection of those facilities. In this respect, the members of the JERICO-NEXT consortium will focus on the more relevant platforms for the scientific community. Proposals for using these selected facilities will be presented by user’ (with respect to the nation of the institution owning the facility) teams to a selection panel and evaluated on the basis of science relevance and merit.
– VA1 – Virtual Access (WP6)
– TNA1 – Transnational Access to Coastal Observatories (WP7)
Common modalities for access and enhanced services are developed in NA4 (WP8)
• Activity 3 – Two Joint Research Activity actions (WP3 and WP4).
The JERICO research infrastructure also requires dedicated research efforts in order to improve its capabilities. The project offers a remarkable opportunity to undertake common subjects, both in the methodological and at the technological fields. However, the project can only tackle a limited set of questions. The two main issues detected by the consortium are on the one hand, developing and improving the design of fit for purpose and cost-efficient networks; on the other hand, make research and monitoring on physical, biological or biodiversity issues benefit from advanced data acquisition technologies.
– JRA1 – Innovations in Technology and Methodology (WP3)
– JRA2 – Valorisation through applied joint research (WP4)
By the integration of emerging methodology and technology, JERICO will proceed towards the automated monitoring at high temporal and spatial resolution of wider areas, and towards new thematic fields including biodiversity. This trend is expected for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
