EMSO ERIC provides power, communications, sensors and data infrastructure for continuous, high-resolution, (near)real-time, interactive ocean observations across a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary range of research areas including biology, geology, chemistry, physics, engineering and computer science, from polar to subtropical environments, through the water column to the abyss. Coordination among the 11 EMSO ERIC Regional Facilities (RFs) (8 deep sea and 3 shallow test sites) has been strengthened through the EMSODEV project, which has designed and produced three EMSO Generic Instrument Modules (EGIMs).
The EMSODEV general objective was to catalyse the full implementation and operation of the EMSO ERIC distributed Research Infrastructure (RI) through the development, testing and deployment of EGIMs. These modules provide accurate, consistent, comparable and long-term measurements of Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs), which are key to addressing urgent societal and scientific challenges, such as climate change, ocean ecosystem disturbance, and marine hazards. This results in the increased interoperability of EMSO ERIC nodes due to the harmonized collection of EOV time series.
The specific objectives of EMSODEV were to:
(1) Design and implement a state-of-the-art, standardized multidisciplinary EGIM
(2) Fully test, calibrate, validate and assess the effectiveness of this innovative module
(3) Use the Big Ocean Data produced by the harmonized instrument module as a catalyst to strengthen the data management and delivery backbone of the EMSO RI
(4) Promote the uptake of the project results and public-private partnerships, establishing links with industry and SMEs for technology transfer and future RDI activities.