Blue-Cloud 2026: Advancing Open Science for Ocean Protection and Restoration

28 Feb 2023

The Horizon Europe project Blue-Cloud 2026 kicked off in Pisa, Italy, paving the way for the development of a federated European ecosystem to deliver FAIR & Open Science datasets, applications and computing resources, instrumental for the EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030”.

Blue-Cloud 2026, funded under the Horizon Europe programme, is co-coordinated by CNR and Trust-IT Services, with MARIS as technical coordinator, counting on a core team of partners such as VLIZ, Ifremer, Mercator Ocean International, Seascape Belgium. Overall it mobilises a solid, multidisciplinary, committed team of 40 partners across 13 EU countries.

The three-day kick-off meeting in Pisa, Italy, was hosted by CNR (National Research Council of Italy) in collaboration with Trust-IT and provided the first official opportunity for the consortium to meet in person, take stock of the work performed in the pilot project and plan the key upcoming activities towards a successful implementation of the Blue-Cloud framework by 2026.

“The Mission of Blue-Cloud 2026 is to become the marine thematic EOSC, implementing Open Science across the entire research value chain, from data management to software development and scientific applications. It positions itself at the cornerstones of fundamental strategies for the European Union: the European Data Strategy, the Open Science Policy, the Green Deal and the EU response to the UN SDGs zero hunger, climate action and life below water.” Sara Pittonet Gaiarin, Trust-IT Services, Blue-Cloud 2026 Project Coordinator

Since October 2019, the pilot Blue-Cloud project (www.blue-cloud.org) combined both the interests of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), aiming to provide a virtual environment with open and seamless access to services for storage, management, analysis and re-use of research data, across borders and disciplines, and the blue research communities by developing a collaborative web-based environment providing simplified access to an unprecedented wealth of multi-disciplinary datasets from observations, analytical services, and computing facilities essential for blue science.

Blue-Cloud 2026 aims at a further evolution of this pilot ecosystem into a Federated European Ecosystem to deliver FAIR & Open data and analytical services, instrumental for deepening research of oceans, EU seas, and coastal & inland waters. It develops a thematic marine extension to EOSC for open web-based science, in support of the EU Green Deal, UN Sustainable Development Goals, the EU Destination Earth initiative, and the EU Mission “Restore Our Ocean and Waters by 2030”.

Our role

Trust-IT acts as co-coordinator of the project in collaboration with the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), taking care of project management, the organisation of meetings and internal communication channels.

We also lead the work package on outreach, engagement, and education, bringing to the table our expertise on website development, digital communication including social media, event management, monitoring activities, as well as stakeholder engagement in the coordination of a synergies programme with other relevant initiatives in the blue economy, Open Science, and digital twinning communities.

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