Europe Needs a Unified Ocean and Water Strategy

EMBRC ERIC welcomes the decision to develop a single European Ocean and Water Research and Innovation Strategy, reflecting a genuine source-to-sea approach that recognises the interconnected nature of marine and freshwater systems. To achieve its objectives, the Strategy should provide a coherent framework that strengthens Europe’s capacity to generate knowledge, develop innovative solutions and support evidence-based policy through coordinated and sustained investment in ocean and water research and innovation.

A successful Strategy depends on recognising biological ocean observation as an essential component of Europe’s ocean knowledge system. While physical and chemical observations have evolved into long-term operational systems, biological ocean observation, including the sustained monitoring of Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), remains comparatively fragmented and largely dependent on competitive research projects.

Yet biological observations provide the evidence needed to understand ecosystem functioning, assess biodiversity change, support ecosystem restoration, sustainable fisheries, biotechnology and other blue economy sectors, and evaluate the effectiveness of European environmental policies. Biological ocean observation should therefore receive the same strategic priority, governance and long-term commitment as physical and chemical observation.

Achieving this requires funding mechanisms that reflect the operational nature of ocean observation. Long-term biological observations cannot rely solely on short-term project funding but require predictable, multiannual support that ensures continuity, interoperability and sustained delivery of high-quality data. The Strategy should therefore promote coherent and dedicated investment across future EU funding programmes supporting ocean and water research and innovation.

Marine research infrastructures are essential partners in delivering these ambitions. They operate a substantial share of Europe’s marine stations, biological observatories and sampling networks, providing the operational capacity on which biological ocean observation depends. Their experience should therefore contribute directly to setting strategic priorities, governance arrangements and investment decisions for the future European ocean observation system.

Marine research infrastructures also strengthen Europe’s competitiveness by connecting scientific discovery with technology validation and industrial uptake. EMBRC’s distributed network provides researchers, SMEs and industry with access to marine organisms, scientific expertise, specialised facilities and real-world testing environments where new sensors, marine biotechnologies and sustainable aquaculture solutions can be developed, validated and prepared for deployment.

The Strategy should explicitly recognise research infrastructures as strategic access platforms for innovation and ensure that commitments under the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, including the Charter of Access and support for technology transfer within research infrastructures, are fully implemented for the marine domain.

Alongside innovation, the Strategy should continue to support fundamental, curiosity-driven marine research, recognising that breakthroughs in biotechnology, ecosystem restoration and future observation technologies originate from a strong scientific knowledge base. As a combined Ocean and Water Strategy, it should also encourage stronger collaboration between marine and freshwater research infrastructures through dedicated funding instruments, reinforcing the source-to-sea approach and reducing fragmentation across the European research landscape.