Second open call for marine biodiversity (monitoring) data

The DTO-BioFlow project is launching its second open call, inviting international networks, citizen science initiatives, research institutes, universities, and NGOs to contribute marine biodiversity data to the European Digital Twin of the Ocean. This initiative is aligned with the EU’s mission to restore oceans and waters by 2030, enhancing oceanographic knowledge and supporting evidence-based policy development.

For more information about the project and the objectives of this Open Call, please visit the the main page dedicated to the open calls.

Project activities

The selected beneficiaries commit to carry out the following activities:

• Participate in a dedicated workshop which will provide training on how to reformat and quality control data conform international standards (see further) and make these available to EMODnet Biology. The workshop will be held from the 3rd of June to the 5th of June 2025 in Paris (3 full days). In-person attendance of at least one representative per selected beneficiary is required. It will also be possible to attend the training workshop online, in case multiple people per beneficiary want to attend the workshop but cannot all attend in person.
• Complete the online training course provided by EMODnet Biology (required for at least one representative per selected beneficiary).
• Contribute to the flow of marine biodiversity data into the DTO, through developing data flow pipelines to EMODnet Biology. Setting up a data flow through intermediate data systems that already have or will in the near future have a direct data flow pipeline to EMODnet Biology (e.g. ICES, ETN) is also eligible.
• Optimize the data flow so that it is as much as possible automated and commit to continued data submission, ensuring sustained data flows to the DTO.
• Ensure the data is formatted, standardized, and quality-controlled conforming to the relevant international standards (as demonstrated in the workshop and the EMODnet Biology online training course) (e.g. using the Darwin Core standard for biodiversity data, OBIS-ENV-DATA as the preferred format, World Register of Marine Species, Marine Regions and BODC NERC Vocabulary Server (NVS) to standardize taxonomic names, location names and parameter names respectively, EMODnet Biology QC Check tool to perform quality checks).
• Ensure that metadata and data will become available through EMODnet Biology. Data need to be published on an Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) instance and pass the EMODnet Biology Quality Control process. 
• Ensure the data complies to Open Access, preferably under a Creative Commons CC-BY license. If applicants plan to use any other license, this needs to be detailed in their application.
• Provide short intermediary reports on their progress every four months, and a final report on the results at the end of the 12-month project. 

Who can apply

Eligible beneficiaries for this call are data holders (international networks, citizen science networks, research institutes, universities, NGOs, etc.) who can facilitate sustained and long-term ingestion to the EU DTO of previously inaccessible data. Beneficiaries or affiliated partners of the DTO-BioFlow project cannot receive funding through this call.

Entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU) are not eligible to participate as recipients of this FSTP. Applicants should have a good command of English, must be eligible for participation in the EC Horizon Europe Framework Programme (see list of participating countries) and must ensure to follow the following obligations of the Grant Agreement: Articles 12 (conflict of interest), 13 (confidentiality and security), 14 (ethics), 17.2 (visibility), 18 (specific rules for carrying out action), 19 (information) and 20 (recordkeeping). The DTO-BioFlow project coordinator will also ensure that the bodies mentioned in Article 25 (e.g. granting authority, OLAF, Court of Auditors (ECA), etc.) can exercise their rights also towards the recipients.

Applicants need to have the rights and permissions to work with the data, and bring these into the public domain under an open license. The applicants need to declare that all samples/materials underlying the data were collected in compliance with national & international legislation, and be able to show the necessary documents when requested.

Applying organisations should be able to provide the personnel to carry out the activities defined in the application. Subcontracting of organisations not involved in the application is not allowed.

Funding

The maximum amount of financial support for each application is 60.000 EUR.

Half of the funding (50%) will be granted at the start of the project, the other half (50%) will be granted at the end of the project, which corresponds to a successful realization of the proposed activities.  

The following costs are eligible for financial support:

• Personnel costs to execute the following types of activities:
  • Development of pipelines for data processing, reformatting, standardisation, transfer and publication
  • Development of data access API’s (Application Programming Interface)
  • Data quality control
  • Data documentation and management (in accordance with FAIR principles)
• Travel costs to attend the 3-day data training workshop in Paris. At least one person and at most two persons per selected beneficiary should attend the workshop in person. 

Note that no other costs, such as those incurred for sample collection/analysis, qualify for financial support through these grants.

Application eligibility

To be eligible to receive this grant, applications need to meet the following criteria:

• The data conform to the requirements of the project:
  • data is not readily available in the public domain, or is not in a standardized format. Updating existing datasets such as time series by enriching them with previously unavailable data (e.g. more recent data) is eligible.
  • data is marine biodiversity data: taxon occurrences, preferably linked to (a)biotic measurements retrieved at the same time and location. New biological data types from methods or sensors capable of species detection are eligible provided that temporal, geographic and taxonomic information is derived from them.
  • data are, for a substantial part, collected in European marine waters.
  • data can be published under an open license (preferably CC-BY).
• The data are helping the project to reach its overall goals:
  • filling important identified gaps in the biodiversity data coverage (e.g. poorly covered taxonomic groups, data poor regions, new data types)
  • facilitating a sustained and long-term ingestion and established data flow
  • mobilizing marine biodiversity (monitoring) data and data series
• The applicant is not a beneficiary nor an affiliated party to the DTO-BioFlow grant agreement.
• Good quality plan of action.
• Successful realisation of proposed activities.