EURopean research on OCean Ecosystems under Anthropogenic and Natural forcingS (EUR-OCEANS)

The EUR-OCEANS Consortium (EOC) builds on the legacy of the EC-funded, FP6 EUR-OCEANS European Network of Excellence (EO NoE), which contributed to the scientific expertise and dissemination of knowledge on marine ecosystems in the context of climate/global change from 2005 to 2008. The EUR-OCEANS acronym stands for EURopean research on OCean Ecosystems under Anthropogenic and Natural forcingS.

The EOC includes a subset of the 66 research organizations that belonged to the former EO NoE, plus some new member organizations. Consortium members provide annual contributions, which fund a project office and competitively selected scientific activities led by one or more of its member organizations. These activities may however involve any former NoE members, the Consortium e-newsletter reaches the larger EUR-OCEANS community, and its online databases of members (organisations or individuals) reflect both EOC and EO NoE membership.

The aim of the EUR-OCEANS Consortium is to favour joint initiatives between key Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) across Europe, to help the community make significant jumps in marine sciences during the next decades. This is implemented by organising and sponsoring activities which focus on hot topics only and can lead to wider European (FP8, JPI…) projects. These activities include Gordon-like conferences, flagship programmes, foresight workshops and public outreach.

The focus of the Consortium is on the impact of climate/global change on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles, and the construction of scenarios relevant to the emerging International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (ipBes).