Ocean observations are essential for understanding and predicting our changing planet. The Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and European research infrastructures rely on a diverse network of observing platforms, including profiling floats, drifting buoys, gliders, moorings, research vessels, and animal-borne sensors. While this diversity enables global coverage and innovation, it also creates challenges for coordination, interoperability, and long-term traceability because different organisations use different metadata standards.

The AMRIT consortium is pleased to share its response to two calls for evidence launched by the European Commission concerning the European Ocean Act and the European Ocean Observation Observative. In the context of both these initiatives, Europe’s Marine Research Infrastructures play a crucial role in understanding and responding to global challenges such as climate change, yet fragmentation in operations, governance, and coordination continues to be an issue

The AMRIT Project “Advance Marine Research Infrastructures Together” is building the foundations for a more interoperable and user-driven marine data ecosystem in Europe. Central to this mission has been an active process of stakeholder engagement, ensuring that the project’s outputs are designed with the community, rather than merely for it. Through a series of regional workshops, the project gathered input from key users across Europe to shape the tools being built and ensure they fit real operational contexts. 

Carlos Rodero is a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences - CSIC (ICM-CSIC) with expertise in marine optics, low-cost sensors and citizen science. Within AMRIT, CSIC leads WP15 (“Improvement of Global Data Products from Blended EOVs”), focusing on the data-fusion methods for ocean colour, temperature, and oxygen for offshore and coastal datasets (including biodiversity in the latter case).