SEAMLESS Roadmap towards a transfer to CMEMS (D7.3)

The document maps the prospects to include results from SEAMLESS into the operation of the six Monitoring and Forecasting Centers (MFC) of the Copernicus Marine Services. We consider the three Tiers of research and development defined in the Copernicus Marine Services (CMEMS), listed by increasing technical readiness level (TRL):

-          Tier 3: Research and Development of TRL 4-6 requiring more than 3 years of work to reach operations in CMEMS are in the scope of Horizon Europe, ERCs and nationally funded research projects.

-          Tier 2 corresponding to TRL 6-8: Operations are impacted within 2 years of work: Tier 2 is the object of Service Evolution projects financed by CMEMS as separate small-size contracts (typically funding one full-time employee for two years). See for an overview: https://marine.copernicus.eu/about/research-development-projects

-          Tier 1 corresponding to TRL 9: Implementation in operations within 1 year of work. Tier-1 uptake is usually taken care of within the CMEMS MFC contracts, presented during the Design Review meeting the year before its Entry Into Service (EIS).

SEAMLESS is a Tier 3 Research and Development (R&D) activity for CMEMS and the expected outcomes should in principle lead to Tier 2 activities before reaching operations. This however does not preclude some low-hanging fruits to reach operations earlier than expected or the more unexpected difficulties to require another Tier 3 project answering a possibly better formulated scientific question.