Every 8 June, World Oceans Day asks something of us. Sometimes that feels like a moment to pause and pay attention. This year feels different. The 2026 theme - "Reimagine" - is not just an invitation to reflect. It marks a real turning point.
At the beginning of this year, the Agreement on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), the BBNJ Agreement, entered into force. It’s the first international treaty to govern the high seas - those parts of the ocean beyond any single country's jurisdiction, which make up roughly half of the planet's surface. For the first time in a generation, the world has agreed to manage a significant stretch of our shared ocean together. As the UN puts it, this is not the end of a negotiation - it is the beginning of a transformation. "Reimagine" asks us to close the distance we have created between ourselves and the ocean, and to step up as active guardians rather than passive recipients of everything it gives us.
Just a few days before this year's World Oceans Day, the European Commission took a concrete step in exactly that direction.
OceanEye: Europe Takes on Ocean Observation
On 3 June 2026, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced OceanEye at the European Ocean Days - a new EU initiative designed to put Europe at the forefront of how the world monitors and understands its oceans.
The starting point is a striking imbalance: the ocean covers around 70% of the Earth's surface, yet only about 5% of it has ever been properly explored. That gap has real consequences - not just for science, but for our ability to forecast climate change, manage fisheries, ensure maritime security, and support the industries that depend on healthy seas.
OceanEye sets out to close that gap. By 2035, the EU wants to contribute 35% of the global ocean observing system and to hold a 35% share of the market for ocean observation technologies. To get there, the Commission is committing €62 million through Horizon Europe, with €50 million already available for 2026–2027 projects.
One of the most ambitious parts of OceanEye is the development of a European Digital Twin Ocean - a continuously updated digital model that brings together real-time data, AI and advanced modelling to give scientists, policymakers and industries a clearer picture of what is happening beneath the surface. The goal is not just to collect more data, but to make it genuinely useful for decisions - on climate, on fishing, on environmental protection, on the blue economy at large. This is where years of EU-funded projects on open marine data and collaborative e-infrastructures become directly relevant. At Trust-IT we are particularly proud to contribute effort to this global, ambitious programme.
Between 2019 and 2026 the Blue-Cloud Horizon Europe project brought together leading European ocean and marine data and knowledge services, such as those provided by EMODnet and Copernicus Marine, to deliver a Virtual Research Environment (VRE), facilitating collaborative research, offering computing, storage, analytical and generic services, orchestrated with a large variety of data resources for constructing, hosting and operating analytical workflows for specific ocean related applications.
Blue-Cloud 2026 is now recognized as the EOSC Node | European Digital Twin Ocean, a core component of the EOSC Federation dedicated to supporting the marine and water research communities. Building on the foundations of Blue-Cloud 2026 and thanks to renewed funding from Horizon Europe, the Node the Node will enable development of collaborative ocean related research services and applications, their testing through key scientific use cases, and will support the integration of new services as a core component of the EDITO core infrastructure platform of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean.
DTO-BioFlow contributes a further, often overlooked piece of the puzzle: marine biodiversity data. Working directly within the Digital Twin Ocean framework, the project integrates fragmented biodiversity datasets into a form that is actually usable for environmental monitoring and policy - something that no ocean digital twin can afford to leave out.
The data dimension of OceanEye also extends to the blue economy and its sustainability challenges. VeriFish built a framework of verifiable sustainability indicators for seafood, helping producers and consumers understand and communicate responsible fishing and aquaculture practices, supporting the dissemination of data and information to help improve our knowledge of marine biodiversity that BBJN is pushing for. The VeriFish Web App and the knowledge base behind it is one of the key legacies of the project. It translates complex sustainability data into clear, accessible indicators covering environmental, social and nutritional dimensions - showing that ocean data is not only about satellites and sensors but reaches all the way to what ends up on the plate.
As OceanEye is supporting the Global Ocean Observing System, it’s worth mentioning the contribution to international ocean research by the AtlantECO project, that has been integrating biological, ecological and physical data across the Atlantic to improve how Europe understands and manages one of the most significant ocean systems on the planet.
Looking ahead
OceanEye is a strong signal that the EU now sees ocean data infrastructure as a strategic priority - not a niche scientific concern, but a genuine public good that underpins climate action, economic competitiveness and environmental governance alike. With its twin 35% targets, its international alliance and its Digital Twin ambition, Europe is on course to become the strongest point of reference in the world for ocean observation and intelligence. That is not a small claim, and the Commission is clearly aware of the responsibility it carries.
That recognition matters. It reflects the kind of work Trust-IT Services and its project partners have been investing in for years - making ocean knowledge more open, more connected and more useful. On this World Oceans Day 2026, with the call to reimagine our relationship with the sea now backed by both a global treaty and a new European initiatives, there is every reason to believe that the foundations being built today will count.
Explore Trust-IT Services' full portfolio of EU marine research projects at trust-itservices.com/projects.
