Brief Description of Organisation:

The Marine Institute is the national Irish agency responsible for marine research and innovation.
The Institute’s statutory remit is to: “undertake, co-ordinate, promote and assist in marine research and development and to provide such services related to marine research and development, that in the opinion of the Institute will promote economic development, create employment and protect the environment” (Marine Institute Act,1991).

The Oceanographic, Science and Information Services (OSIS) section of the Marine Institute will carry out the relevant tasks in this proposal.

Key objectives of OSIS research include:

• Developing mitigation and adaptation strategies for the Atlantic region.
• Assess current models, and develop better models for climate change impact predictions at regional/local levels.
• Implement a Pilot European Atlantic in-situ Ocean Observing System.
• Develop standards for data acquisition, storage and dissemination, and for sharing of data/resources.
• Establishment of a European Atlantic Seabed Mapping Programme.
• To gain a deeper understanding of vulnerabilities and risks including those related to global climate change and climate impacts.
• Develop data management systems for the integration of historical and paleo data, ocean observing and forecasting systems to provide better indicators of past, current and future environmental status.
• Develop a North Atlantic Ocean Observation and Forecasting Capacity.
• Assessment of the impacts of rising sea temperatures and ocean acidification on marine ecosystems.

JERICO-S3: Main tasks attributed under Work Packages:

WP8 Work Package leader for Transnational Access
WP9 Task leader - Task 9.4 Business plan of the JERICO-RI
WP13 Task leader - Task 13.7 Coordination and management of Transnational Access programme

JERICO-DS: Main tasks attributed under Work Packages:

WP4 Work Package Leader: Sustainability. Collaboration in WP1, WP2, WP3, WP5, WP6 as nation representative.

JERICO-NEXT: Main tasks attributed under Work Packages:

MI are leading Task 1.3 and contributing to tasks 1.4 and 1.6.

Relevant Projects- previous and existing:

AtlantOS: AtlantOS is a BG 8 (Developing in-situ Atlantic Ocean Observations for a better management and sustainable exploitation of the maritime resources) research and innovation project that proposes the integration of ocean observing activities across all disciplines for the Atlantic, considering European as well as non-European partners. Marine Institute is involved in WP1 of AtlantOS in helping to define the user requirements for ocean observing systems. MI fisheries scientists will work on WP2 where they will add value to existing fisheries surveys in the Atlantic. Through the MI’s international network of collaborators it is working on forging links between the coastal observing communities on both sides of the Atlantic in WP4. MI has a major role in both coordinating and carrying our activities in WP8 including case studies on HAB forecasting, aquaculture site development and coastal flooding. MI is also involved in WP9 examining the overall fitness for purpose of the observations in AtlantOS.
AORAC: The objective of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance Coordination and Support Action (AORAC-SA) is to provide scientific, technical and logistical support to the European Commission in developing and implementing trans-Atlantic Marine Research Cooperation between the European Union, the United States of America and Canada. The Coordination and Support Action (CSA) is carried out within the framework of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance as outlined in the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation (May 2013). The Marine Institute has a major role in AORAC as WP leaders for WP1 Governance, WP2 Networking & Conferences and WP3 Communications and Dissemination.
FIX03: The Fixed point Open Ocean Observatory network (FixO3) integrated European open ocean fixed point observatories and improved access to these key installations for the broader community. The MI had significant input across a variety of WPs.
JERICO: "Joint European Research Infrastructure network for Coastal Observatories" brought together the representative European coastal observatory operators, enhancing their coordination and promoting the cost-effective use of their facilities, in order to support the efficient provision of essential research and monitoring networks. JERICO created a solid and transparent organization towards an operational service for the timely, continuous and sustainable delivery of high-quality environmental data and information products related to the marine environment in European coastal seas. It promoted joint research
initiatives and standardisation, giving a lift to the industrial sector of coastal instrumentation and monitoring services. The MI had significant input across a variety of WPs.
COOP+: "Cooperation of Research Infrastructures to address global challenges in the environmental field" is an Horizon 2020 project (CSA, Project Number 654131) whose goal was to strengthen the links and coordination of the European RIs related to Marine Science (EMSO), Arctic and Atmospheric Research
JERICO_Next: strengthened and enlarging the solid and transparent JERICO European network 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. The MI led task 1.5 Strategy toward sustainability: Economics and Governance and input across various other work packages.