The EuroMarine Network Summary Report on 2014-2017 Activities

Launched in 2014, EuroMarine is the European marine science network. It represents the merger of the scientific communities of three former European Networks of Excellence: EUR-OCEANS, Marine Genomics Europe, and MarBEF. It was designed by the EuroMarine FP7 preparatory project (2011–13) as a bottom-up organization and meant to be a voice for the European marine scientific community, promoting the emergence of novel collaborative research topics from genes to ecosystems in changing oceans. It is intended as a durable structure with an initial duration as a consortium of 10 years. A Legal Entity has been established in 2018 as a support structure under the control of the consortium. In 2019, EuroMarine comprises 59 member organisations, 51 of which are ‘full voting’ members contributing to the annual budget.

The network supports a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to marine research in four priority areas: 

• Understanding marine ecosystems for healthy oceans
• Biogeochemistry
• Building scenarios for marine ecosystems under changing oceans
• Marine science as a provider of new concepts for innovation and technology

EuroMarine co-operates with the European Marine Board, JPI Oceans and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IBPES). It intends to foster initiatives under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science (2021–2030). It contributes to translating the objectives of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda into actions, and highlights the potential to advance marine research using incentive funding, engaging with stakeholders across all levels.

The primary goals of EuroMarine are to: 

• Support the identification and initial development of emerging scientific topics, issues and methodologies
• Foster new services relevant to the marine scientific community. 

Accordingly, EuroMarine funds scientific, foresight, and training activities, through its annual competitive calls, bringing teams together to share, collaborate and collectively push boundaries in marine science. Support for these activities and their outcomes are expected to leverage larger projects under European, national or joint research funding programmes.

The wider goals of EuroMarine are to:

• Advocate for marine science and to contribute to the improvement of the science-governance interface, through provision of expertise and transfer of knowledge.
• Increase the visibility of the marine science community at member state, European and international levels.
• Expand recognition of the important role marine science plays in society.
• Maintain Europe’s position as a global leader in marine science.