Call for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data

DTO-BioFlow Open Calls for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data

Throughout the duration of the project, DTO-BioFlow will launch two Open Calls, offering up to €60,000 for institutions managing marine biodiversity data. These calls invite institutions to contribute to the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (EU DTO) by making their data available through EMODnet Biology, a portal providing open, free access to interoperable data on the temporal and spatial distribution of marine species (e.g., angiosperms, benthos, birds, fish, macroalgae, mammals, reptiles, phyto- and zooplankton) from European regional seas.

The primary goal of these calls is to support the standardization and publication of previously unavailable biodiversity data and the establishment of (semi-)automated workflows, enabling the sustained, long-term ingestion of this data into the EU DTO.

Background

The ocean and its biodiversity are essential to life on this planet. Comprehensive data on biodiversity, and related human and environmental pressures are crucial to understand its current state and how this may change. Protecting and restoring biodiversity is one of three objectives of the Horizon Europe Mission to restore our oceans and waters by 2030, enabling the EU to reach its Green Deal and Biodiversity 2030 targets. Identified as one of the Mission "enablers", the EU will build on “a digital knowledge system” to include a  Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) allowing simulation of ‘what if’ scenarios, advancing ocean knowledge, informing evidence-based policy and offering a range of societal applications.

The DTO-BioFlow project

To effectively replicate the ocean’s ecology, the DTO requires sustained flows of data on biodiversity and associated pressures. While biodiversity data are being collected by myriad actors, using a wide variety of methods (including novel cost-effective monitoring technologies), not all these data become publicly available in a standardized format. DTO-BioFlow will activate these "sleeping" marine biodiversity data and enable the sustainable integration of data flows from various sources to EMODnet and into the EDITO infrastructure serving the EU DTO. 

Combining sustained data flows, models and new algorithms, DTO-BioFlow will develop and integrate the biological component of the DTO, including new digital tools and services. Policy-relevant use cases, will demonstrate the benefit for marine ecosystems of continuous data streams flowing through EMODnet and usable by the EU DTO infrastructures and ultimate end-users. The project run from September 2023 to February 2027.