From data and research to real-world applications, DTO-BioFlow’s matchmaking events bring people, ideas and opportunities together to advance the European Digital Twin Ocean.
Some of the most valuable breakthroughs in a research project don't happen in a lab or during fieldwork.
They happen when the right people are in the right place (virtual or physical) brainstorming together and discussing their results. That's the whole idea behind DTO-BioFlow's Matchmaking Events (MMEs): bringing together data providers, researchers, industry, public authorities and other EU projects to explore how biodiversity data, tools and Demonstrator Use Cases (DUCs) can contribute to the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO).
Over the past two months, DTO-BioFlow organised two matchmaking events, putting experts together to discuss ideas and options for awakening ‘sleeping’ data and transforming it into tangible, reusable knowledge that would later be available to everyone. Both events set the stage for a bigger one coming in September.
Connecting Biodiversity Data to the Digital Twin Ocean
On 24 June 2026, DTO-BioFlow hosted an online matchmaking session titled “DTO-BioFlow Matchmaking Event: Data flows into the Digital Twin Ocean” with four Horizon Europe sister projects: GuardIAS, OBAMA-NXT, MARCO-BOLO, and eDNAqua-Plan.
The question was simple: How do Horizon Europe biodiversity projects get their data into the Digital Twin Ocean?
The five projects compared how they collect, process and publish biodiversity data, then discussed common challenges and possible solutions. The session highlighted an important reality: the Digital Twin Ocean can only be as useful as the data and data flows that feed it.
By sharing practices and identifying common obstacles, the projects moved one step closer to making biodiversity data more findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.
From biodiversity science to living waterfronts
On 11 June, matchmaking took a more hands-on direction in Gothenburg. "From Sharp Edge to Reed Bed — The Beginning of a New Era, Phase 2" brought DTO-BioFlow's Demonstrator Use Cases DUC1 (invasive species management) and DUC5 (marine protected area management) face-to-face with the people who build urban waterfronts for a living. This meeting united construction companies, academic and public organisations including Skanska, White Arkitekter, Älvstranden Utveckling, the City of Gothenburg, the Centre for Sea and Society, and the University of Gothenburg at the Lindholmen Science Park.
The workshop is phase two of an initiative funded by the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable development FORMAS (2026–2028) to design and monitor biodiversity-positive waterfronts using circular excavation masses to build nature-based solutions like reefs and soft shorelines that support climate adaptation.
From data to the sea, on implementation we agree
Taken together, the two events make the same point from opposite directions. One matched projects against projects to strengthen the data pipes running into EDITO; the other matched a DUC with the industry and public partners who can actually build biodiversity into the urban environments.
Both events are, in the end, about the eight Demonstrator Use Cases (DUCs) being put into effect: turning fragmented biodiversity observations, from invasive species records to plankton imaging to quay wall surveys, into interoperable inputs for a Digital Twin Ocean that can support real hypothetical scenarios for conservation and policy.
Together, they demonstrate the value of matchmaking: connecting projects, data and expertise can unlock opportunities that would be difficult to achieve in isolation.
Coming up: a matchmaking event for anyone working with biodiversity data
If those two events spiked your curiosity, the next one will not disappoint!
The next matchmaking event is built for a much broader audience. On 16 September 2026, 10:30–12:30 CEST, DTO-BioFlow is running an online matchmaking event open to the whole biodiversity data community: "Marine Biodiversity Data and the European Digital Twin Ocean: What it can do for you."
The session is designed to help participants discover the Demonstrator Use Cases and explore how these tools and services support the biodiversity data community and the European Digital Twin Ocean (EDITO) infrastructure. This event offers a two-hour agenda covering a DTO-BioFlow overview, biodiversity data flow concepts, a deep dive into specific use cases (including an invasive species showcase, a direct follow-on from the Gothenburg workshop), lightning presentations, live Q&A, and a look ahead at upcoming policy briefs.
It's open to anyone working with marine or biodiversity data: EU Mission partners, biodiversity data providers, researchers, policy stakeholders, and other projects building marine digital tools. If you want to see where your data, tool, or use case fits into the Digital Twin Ocean, this is the room to be in.
Explore DTO-BioFlow's Demonstrator Use Cases and browse upcoming events to find the next matchmaking opportunity. Follow DTO-BioFlow on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Bluesky, or subscribe to the newsletter to stay in the loop.
