The AMRIT consortium is excited to share their response to the European Commission’s (EC) Call for evidence on the upcoming European Strategy on Research and Technology (submitted in May 2025).
The consortium welcomed the ECs initiative to develop a new Strategy on Research and Technology Infrastructures. These infrastructures play a crucial role in advancing our scientific understanding of the ocean, which in turn is vital in the face of global challenges such as climate change, preservation of marine biodiversity, food security and energy transition amongst other pressures.
The consortium highlighted that there is currently very little operational and field coordination among the different Marine Research Infrastructures (MRI), leading to a fragmented MRI landscape across Europe. This lack of coordination hinders the MRI’s collective ability to contribute effectively to initiatives like the European Ocean Observation System (EOOS) and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), ultimately limiting their impact not only on European Research Area (ERA) goals and EU maritime policies, but also to their potential global reach.
The key messages the consortium has therefore brought to the EC’s attention include:
● The need to strengthen the cohesion among Marine Research Infrastructures, offering more integrated services to increase their effectiveness.
● The immense potential of pilot projects such as AMRIT to encourage and foster integration between MRIs and to enable dialogue with EC Directorates, thereby helping to overcome the fragmented MRI community and to initiate a long-term shared vision.
● The essential need for a more unified and strategic European approach to governance and coordination, encompassing the integration of all marine operational and IT infrastructures and ensuring seamless interoperability and data sharing across diverse platforms and systems.
● The creation of a robust, long-term institutional framework that would enable sustained functioning between national organizations and MRIs and establish European leadership in ocean monitoring. This is needed to ensure the sustainability of the structure and its effectiveness for EOOS and GOOS.
Through its response, the AMRIT consortium emphasizes the need of a common strategy to coordinate the various MRIs in Europe going forward. This is reflecting the consortium’s commitment to shaping a future where Europe’s MRIs advance ocean science together to maximize its positive impact on a global scale.
Read the full statement here. [Feedback from: Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées / Institut Polytechnique de Paris]