Blue-Cloud 2026 - D7.5 Blue-Cloud 2026 Sustainability Strategy & Plan

Blue-Cloud 2026 builds on the successful foundations of the original Blue-Cloud initiative and its continued evolution into a federated marine data and analytics ecosystem supporting Open Science and the European Ocean digital infrastructure. The initiative integrates and extends best practices, tools and services developed through previous European Union funded projects, as well as relevant EOSC-related initiatives and community-driven developments, including work on interoperability, FAIR data principles, and research infrastructure integration.

By enabling FAIR data management and federated access across marine scientific domains, Blue-Cloud 2026 strengthens collaboration among research infrastructures, thematic communities, and stakeholder groups at European and international level. This approach enhances the accessibility, interoperability, and reuse of marine research outputs, while fostering the development and uptake of innovative cloud-based services, Virtual Labs and Workbenches that support multidisciplinary ocean science.

Through the translation and operationalisation of FAIR-enabling solutions across marine disciplines, the project contributes to improved scientific collaboration, reproducibility and data-driven discovery in ocean science. These advances also reinforce trust in digital research infrastructures and support higher-quality, more efficient research workflows across the blue economy and environmental policy domains. 

This report outlines the sustainability planning for each one of the Blue-Cloud 2026 key outputs identified as critical for the European marine data ecosystem and the wider EOSC landscape. Whether maintained as operational services, integrated into larger infrastructures such as EOSC and EDITO, or sustained by partner organisations and community stakeholders, these outputs are intended to continue shaping best practices, interoperability frameworks and policy alignment for a long-term, sustainable European marine digital ecosystem.