As part of its objective to co-design new services through direct consultation with key stakeholders, the EuroGO-SHIP team has had a productive period raising awareness for the project at conferences, consulting with existing RIs, and accessing the needs of the ship-based hydrography community in Europe and its wider support system.
Consultation with Existing Research Infrastructures
The EuroGO-SHIP team has triggered initial conversations with Eurofleets+, GroomII, EURO ARGO ERIC,ICOS ERIC and EMSO ERIC–five out of the six existing RIs in the marine support landscape whose activities most closely align with EuroGO-SHIP. Outreach with the sixth RI, Jerico, has been scheduled for the summer.
These virtual meetings, following a structured process, took place to introduce the EuroGO-SHIP concept and to evaluate what the needs would be of the existing RIs from the new EuroGO-SHIP RI as it enters the landscape. In addition, there was discussion around what facilities, capacities or services the existing RIs can offer EuroGO-SHIP, as well as what access arrangements might be required. The consultations informed a comprehensive mapping exercise of services. Throughout the consultations, the reception has been favourable with the recognition that working together will bring good synergies and will facilitate better planning and improved results for all.
Stakeholder Engagements at meetings and events
In March, Elaine McDonagh virtually attended the annual ICES Working Group on Hydrography, a hybrid meeting in Woods Hole, USA, to present the EuroGO-Ship concept and initiate a discussion on how EuroGO-SHIP can work with the ICES WGOH going forward. At the European Maritime Day (EMD) in Brest, France May 24-25, EuroGO-SHIP was represented by Niamh Flavin of the Irish Marine Institute who waved the EuroGO-SHIP flag to raise awareness for the project while at the EuroFleet stand. Niamh was also on outreach duty for EuroGO-SHIP at OCEANS in Limerick, Ireland June 5-8. In the early days of the project, Katrin Schroeder of CNR met with MonGOOS to assess the regional need for Research Infrastructure services across European regional seas and to establish a working relationship for events and meetings through the EuroGO-SHIP project lifecycle.
Hosting the Black Sea Observing Workshop
As part of the annual meeting in Constanța, stakeholder engagements took place in a Black Sea Observing Workshop where team members were able to meet directly with Black Sea hydrographers to have productive dialogue about the needs of this regional community.
During the workshop, this regional community was introduced to the EuroGO-SHIP project — specifically its aims to strengthen ship-based hydrography services in Europe—and learned of the coordinated efforts EuroGO-SHIP is having with the Mediterranean Operational Network for the Global Observing System (MONGOOS) and ICES Working Group on Oceanic Hydrography as an example of how the project is working with existing networks to co-design new services. In turn, the EuroGO -SHIP team received a good introduction to some aspects of the observation taking place in the Black Sea, among the groups that attended, as the initial steps toward understanding the needs of the region. Overall, there was a positive reception for the EuroGO-SHIP concept and a deeper and more expansive dive into working together will be taken at the next workshop, which will be held as part of the Annual Meeting in Venice, Italy in 25-28th of June 2024.