EUR-OCEANS: Follow-up of the Network of Excellence

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EUR-OCEANS: From a Network of Excellence to a Consortium

From 2005 to 2008, the EUR-OCEANS Network of Excellence has brought together 160 scientists, from 61 research institutes and universities in 25 countries in Europe and beyond. During these 4 years, the main objectives of the Network were to develop tools to better forecast the evolution of the ocean's ecosystem, in order to define a basis for sustainable development at global level, and to achieve long-term integration of European research efforts in this scientific field.

The EUR-OCEANS Network has been very successful in driving these objectives, in a collaborative, multidisciplinary vision. Building on the achievements and success of the Network, several major European partners in ocean, climate and marine resources sciences took the initative to create, from 1st January 2009, the "EUR-OCEANS Consortium", which ensures the continuity and further integration of Member Organisations that were involved in the EUR-OCEANS NoE, and other interested organisations.

The EUR-OCEANS Consortium

On July 12, 2008, the agreement creating the EUR-OCEANS Consortium has been signed by the official representatives of Member Organisations, during a ceremony hosted by Oceanopolis, Brest, and chaired by Dominique Le Queau, Director of the National Institute of Science of the Universe (INSU/CNRS). The Consortium aims at facilitating the long-term harmonization of the efforts of European marine research institutes and universities on ocean ecosystem research under anthropogenic and natural forcings.

Introduced by Julie Hall, Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the IMBER project, a first discussion about the scientific priorities of the Consortium for the first actions to be launched in 2009 (Flagship Institutions, Gordon-like Conferences) was initiated after the ceremony, and will be continued among the Members in the coming months.

Preceding the signing ceremony, the delegations of the Member Organisations were invited to a visit and a lunch on board the R.V. Marion-Dufresne of the French Polar Institute (IPEV), present in the Brest harbour at the occasion of a large maritime festival, “Brest 2008”. Hosted by J. Borg and M. Wallström, European Commissioners, and the 27 European Ministers in charge of European Affairs, a celebration ceremony was also held at the end of the afternoon at the European Commission Pavilion in “Brest 2008”.

Agreement creating the EUR-OCEANS Consortium

The first, informal EUR-OCEANS Consortium meeting occurred during the EUR-OCEANS Final Conference held in November 2008, in Rome, Italy. During the meeting, chaired by Paul Tréguer and Louis Legendre, were recalled the objectives, activities and structure of the Consortium. The aim of this meeting was to prepare proposals for the first Consortium Council meeting to be held in January 2009.

Detailed record of the meeting and list of the EUR-OCEANS Consortium members.

Call for letters of intent

A call for letters of intent concerning the two major activities of the upcoming EUR-OCEANS Consortium: Flagship Institutions and Gordon-like Conferences, has been opened on 10 December 2008. The deadline to submit a letter of intent was 9 January 2009. Please refer to the call text for details.

First meeting of the Council

The first meeting of the EUR-OCEANS Consortium Council was held on 22 January 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. Several important decisions were made in order to launch the activities of the Consortium.

Record of the Brussels meeting.