JERICO-NEXT held its kick-off meeting and associated side-events in Mallorca this week. JERICO-NEXT is the coastal component of the European marine observing system, funded by the H2020 program – a follow-up from the FP7 project JERICO.
JERICO-NEXT aims at extending the EU network of coastal observations developed in JERICO by adding new innovative infrastructures and integrating biogeochemical and biological observations. JERICO-NEXT will provide researchers with continuous and more valuable coastal data coupling physical and biological information by further developing, harmonizing and integrating nationally-funded marine observing systems, collecting physical, chemical and biological parameters from different platforms (ferryboxes, fixed platforms, gliders, HF radars, benthic systems …).
EuroGOOS is a partner in the JERICO-NEXT project focusing on data management issues. For the kick-off week the coordinator asked EuroGOOS to facilitate a discussion on links between JERICO-NEXT, H2020 AtlantOS and the European Ocean Observing System, EOOS. Furthermore, emphasis was made on how EuroGOOS Task Teams can contribute to these initiatives. Proposal for a EuroGOOS task team on fixed platform was progressed and will be further discussed during the EuroGOOS executive board meeting and FixO3 general assembly, both taking place in Brussels in two weeks.
Glenn Nolan, EuroGOOS Secretary General, stressed the JERICO-NEXT opportunity to explore synergies with other programmes. EuroGOOS urged the project partners to ensure a strong link with similar AtlantOS activities on strategy, requirements and OSSEs (Ocean Observing System Simulation Experiment system).
Further information on the JERICO-NEXT kick-off week is available on the project website.
