SEARCULAR aims at reducing the amount of marine litter and microplastic from the most relevant European fishery contributors (demersal trawlers, demersal seiners, tropical tuna purse seiners) and to introduce circular economy practices within the fishing sector value chain including ports, by fostering behavioural change. SEARCULAR will do this by developing/testing/validating 4 close-to-market sustainable and circular solutions (TRL7-9). Three of the solutions are related to the use of more sustainable materials as alternatives to the traditional non-circular plastic used in fishing gears: Solution#1 proposes a dolly rope made of recycled polyamide (rPA) from discarded fishing nets (thus it is focused on circularity and more durable materials), Solution#2 is based on certified marine-biodegradable materials for demersal seine ropes (the focus is on less impact gears), Solution#3 represents an eco-designed biodegradable drifting Fish Aggregating Devices (dFADs) used by tropical tuna purse seine fishery. And Solution#4 proposes an End-of-Life (EOL) fishing gears solution for ports by promoting a replicable management system that enables the pyrolysis of EOL fishing gears for a plastic2plastic application. The 4 solutions will be tested under real conditions: onboard commercial vessels (Solutions 1-3) and for the Basque country region (Solution 4), and they will be validated by stakeholders. Therefore, SEARCULAR solutions eliminate waste generated from fishing gears, circulate materials and regenerate nature.

Ocean observing is executed and financed by nations according to their national interest and needs, but aligned with European and international agreements and directives. ObsSea4Clim brings together key European and international actors within ocean observing science, climate assessment, Earth System modelling, data sharing and standards, with users of oceanographic products and services with the goals of: - improving sustained and multipurpose observations vital to European and global climate requirements, and - delivering an improved observation framework based on EOV/ECVs and embedded in a Rolling Review of Requirements approach. ObsSea4Clim will: - improve regional and global climate assessments and - provide projections and actionable indicators for sustainable development provided. The work program is organized around four building blocks (TRL7-8): 1- the EOV/ECV concept, 2- the regional ocean indicator concepts, 3- the nations’ multi-purpose (climate, services, ocean health) ocean observing, 4- the integration with European and global initiatives. ObsSea4Clim will make use of ocean climate application areas such as: sea ice loss, ocean transports, stratification, sea level, ocean warming and marine heat waves and ocean mesoscale. Regional observing will be transformed into an EOV/ECVs framework suitable for regional and global climate products, ESM development (CMIP7) and indicators. ObsSea4Clim will also link to the Mission Restore our Ocean 2030 lighthouse basins. AI methods will control data quality and unlock EOV/ECVs from existing data repositories. ObsSea4Clim will promote the implementation of FAIR/CARE data, enabling and advocating their use for versatile applications and referenced to an EOV/ECV framework. ObsSea4Clim will actively lead the dialogue with European and international climate and data initiatives to ensure the necessary exchanges for implementing the ObsSea4Clim results into the international system. In this way, ObsSea4Clim will ensure sustained EU leadership in the ocean–climate–biodiversity science nexus at a global level.

A-AAgora aims to develop the implementable NbS (Nature based Solutions) through innovative governance structures and technological architecture. It targets to boost resilience to climate change and mitigating its impacts in coastal areas. It identifies synergies by promoting a deliberative process to complement other priority areas within the EC Mission - by setting a Community of Practice and developing a digital knowledge system. It develops NbS at three replicable demonstrators (Demo-PT, Demo-IE, Demo-NO), which can upscaled. The project seeks improved public engagement and enhanced decision-making processes at different political levels based on scientific knowledge and targeted social and economic awareness, using an EBM approach. It builds on the successful implementation of NbS at the Demo’s to which the necessary socio-technological tools will be produced as required for a realistic EBM planning cycle (up to TRL/SRL 7). The Living Lab concept will foster the exchange synergies at multiple scales between researchers and users, decision-makers and local communities, industry and SMEs. A-AAgora will demonstrate that restoration of aquatic ecosystems is possible at a large scale through reduction of pressures, EBM, and effective NbS including blue reforestation to boost coastal resilience to climate change impacts. As well, the A-AAgora will make the most of cross-Mission synergies, by targeting marine ecosystem restoration in coastal communities particularly vulnerable to the risks of sea level rise that urgently need to adapt to ensure their population and infrastructure are safe, climate-proof and weather-resilient. The design of innovative architecture, enabling interoperability with other systems and will also foster a more ‘digital ocean’.

The main ambition of FOCCUS is to improve and advance the coastal dimension of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) by enhancing existing capability, developing innovative coastal products. Designing and demonstrating the integration of Copernicus and Member State coastal services will allow a seamless and fit-for-use monitoring and forecasting of the ocean from global to regional and coastal scales. Co-production of coastal services will reinforce the quality, efficiency and exploitation of Copernicus research and specific applications will demonstrate FOCCUS’s progress beyond the state of the art for challenges such as the protection of the coastal zone, the development of a sustainable blue economy, and the building of coastal zone resilience to climate change, anthropogenic pressures and natural hazards. At the heart of the proposed methodology is the use of new space (such as Sentinels) and in-situ coastal observations, innovations in data fusion, data processing and visualisation together with seamless numerical coastal prediction (including interfaces for downscaling from CMEMS) from the regional to the near-shore, also connecting to the estuarine scale. Novel approaches will be used to ensure CMEMS evolves at the forefront of modern research and technology, in-line with the innovation and digitalisation required for the European digital ocean and water knowledge system. FOCCUS will ensure credible pathways for effective uptake and exploitation of key outcomes and research results by the CMEMS and the wider user community, thereby fostering the acceptance and efficient application of novel information products by society. This will include demonstrations of the technical readiness of the proposed evolutions and active dialogue with European and international initiatives to ensure the global community is aware of FOCCUS, and that results contribute to wider efforts.

To guide climate change adaptation and mitigation, reliable information on the regional and local impacts of climate change is needed. The Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative responds to this need by developing Digital Twins (DTs) of the Earth. In particular, DestinE Climate DT provides climate information at regional and local scales over multiple decades. However, the reliability of the impact assessments of Climate DT depends on the underlying km-scale climate models, which fail to represent some key components of the Earth system. We aim to enhance the DestinE infrastructure by developing a Digital Twin of the Earth system for the cryosphere, land surface and related interactions (TerraDT). TerraDT subscribes to the DestinE vision of building interoperable and interactive DTs, while pushing the resolution to km-scale, globally. TerraDT improves the descriptions of Earth system components in the DestinE climate models for land ice, sea ice, aerosols and land surface. TerraDT is based on a modular infrastructure with a coupling interface that enables adding new components or AI/ML-based emulators. TerraDT also develops impact models linked to the cryosphere and land surface to provide user-relevant information with interactive capabilities. TerraDT developments enable their full integration to the DestinE framework. Overall, TerraDT will improve the reliability and relevance of the climate projections and impact assessments of DestinE, which is critical for guiding adaptation and mitigation actions. The TerraDT consortium consists of 18 organisations with expertise in Earth system modeling, supercomputing and impact assessments. TerraDT will also engage with relevant users and stakeholders. The consortium includes the key partners from the DestinE Climate DT contract team. Thus, it is in a unique position to fully exploit the novel approach of Climate DT and further enhance its capabilities by integration of the TerraDT developments.