Blue-Action, A4 Project and ATLAS: Joint Workshop on Subpolar North Atlantic Eastern Boundary (D6.3)

This workshop brought together groups from 9 European institutions and 6 European countries to promote closer collaboration between the groups making moored and other observations along the eastern boundary of the subpolar North Atlantic. This workshop was timely and fruitful as a clustering activity between European funded Blue-Action, Atlas and the recently funded A4 project in Ireland, with extended funding for NOAC and OSNAP recently secured, and new announcements of opportunity associated with OSNAP in the UK.

We successfully described the observations that are ongoing on the eastern margin of the subpolar North Atlantic. Problems, sustainability, and opportunities were all discussed. Scientific problems that straddle the region were discussed. In particular, focus on the European Slope Current highlighted open scientific questions that can be addressed with co-ordinated analysis of the existing arrays and co-ordinated observations in the future.

The workshop was held on 14 October 2019 in Edinburgh (UK), at the Hudson Beare Building, King’s Buildings, Edinburgh University. The workshop was organised by Gerard McCarthy (NUIM) and Stuart Cunnigham (SAMS), with the support of the project management of Blue-Action (DMI) and Atlas (University of Edinburgh). The workshop is a collaboration of three EU-funded projects, Blue-Action and ATLAS, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements No 727852 (Blue-Action) and No 678760 (ATLAS) and the A4 project (Aigéin, Aeráid, Agus athrú Atlantaigh—Oceans, Climate, and Atlantic Change), funded by the Irish Marine Institute and the European Regional Development fund (grant: PBA/CC/18/01).