The EMODnet Steering Committee meets twice a year to review progress and set the priorities for future developments.

The EOOS Conference will bring together the full breadth of ocean observing stakeholder communities from the scientific community, public authorities to industry and citizens to (i) present the wide variety of European efforts from existing observing/monitoring activities to gap analyses, identification of requirements, stress testing the system and assessing cost-benefits; (ii) align data acquisition activities with data processing, management, and sharing infrastructures and initiatives; and to (iii) discuss and strengthen the development of a coordinating ‘cycle’ for evolving EOOS.

2016 was a successful year for EMODnet. We have already achieved what we set out to do by 2020; deliver a complete multi-resolution seabed map of European seas. EMODnet is now a reference source of data for those working in the coastal and offshore blue economy. It is already improving the forecasting of storm surges and helping national and regional authorities develop spatial plans and report the state of their marine environment.

This Workshops will focus on streamlining the EMODnet Sea-basin checkpoint methodology. The Sea-basin Checkpoints perform stress test of the adequacy of the current observational capacity at a regional/sea-basin level and their results contribute to the improvement of EMODnet. The EMODnet Stakeholder Conference (14-15 February 2017, Brussels) highlighted the different approaches and methods applied by the sea-basin checkpoints stressing the need to assess best practices and a common way forward. The Sea-basin Checkpoints Workshop will take place back to back with the 8th EMODnet Steering Committee Meeting.