The European Commission has set out plans for a new initiative, called OceanEye, to bring together and strengthen how the EU collects and uses information about the ocean.
Costas Kadis, the European Commissioner for Fisheries and Oceans, said on Wednesday that OceanEye is intended to organise, co-ordinate and support marine knowledge — including ocean observations, marine data and digital applications — into a more unified system.
Only about 5% of the ocean has been mapped and explored, despite covering roughly 70% of the Earth’s surface, Kadis said.
The Commission’s plans include moving away from what it described as fragmented ocean observation in Europe and shifting towards a more strategic, better co-ordinated approach, he added.
A new governance framework for OceanEye is due to be set out in a proposed European Ocean Act, which the Commission plans to put forward by the end of this year.
Links to global monitoring and new investment
The EU also wants its ocean observation system to contribute more effectively to the Global Ocean Observation System (GOOS) — a worldwide effort to gather ocean data — and plans to set up an International Alliance to support GOOS, Kadis said.
The Commission will establish a strategic partnership with UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which co-ordinates GOOS, and said it wants to bring together EU member states and international partners, including private sector and philanthropic organisations, to reinforce contributions to the global system.
Ekaterina Zaharieva, the commissioner responsible for startups, research and innovation, said ocean observation is a market worth between €10 billion and €20 billion a year, growing by 5% to 10% annually, and linked to a wider business ecosystem valued at up to €90 billion.
She pointed out that the Commission is building on existing work under the Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters programme, backed by €475 million from Horizon Europe, including a prototype “Digital Twin Ocean” — a computer model intended to simulate the ocean using data.
As part of OceanEye, the Commission plans to link the Digital Twin Ocean more closely with the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme and develop its high-performance computing capabilities, Zaharieva said.
She added that Horizon Europe currently invests around €100 million in support of ocean observation and that the Commission will provide an additional €50 million to secure current in-situ observation capacities — meaning measurements collected directly in the ocean — along with €12 million for data systems.
The Commission will also commit €30 million to a European Innovation Council challenge focused on ocean observation.
