Discussions between NOC, dstl(Ministry of Defence), the Royal Navy and Chelsea Technologies Group (CTG) have highlighted what can be gained from hull-mounted underway instruments and where a lack of appropriate formal communication is failing to exploit UK research and development. Advances in the scientific understanding of the marine environment through real-time underway monitoring are not yet being integrated with traditional operational training. And the operational tools needed to exploit these advances need research and development, the outputs of which will benefit both UK operators and UK business exports. It is vital that operational requirements are efficiently fed back to industry, with the knowledge based interaction of research organisations, such that complex measured parameters are provided in a simple visual user interface. The OBS programme seeks to address these problems through a number of formal routes for knowledge exchange. Royal Navy vessels including submarines carry a wide range of underway environmental monitoring instruments. Many vessels are equipped with underway instrument packages which, in addition to temperature and salinity, also measure chlorophyll fluorescence, a biological degradation product known as Gelbstoff or 'yellow substance', trace hydrocarbons and luminescence. Some training is provided for mariners and submariners in physical oceanography to maintain a level of understanding of the impact of the sound velocity characteristics of a water column on the ability to detect and be detected acoustically. However, both the RN and DSTL have a keen interest in establishing and exploiting the use of non-acoustic indicators that provide information on the operating environment for UK strategic advantage. The data from biogeochemical environmental sensors are currently poorly understood by operators. There are no mechanisms currently in place to provide the sustained knowledge transfer necessary for the routine interpretation of these data streams for operational environmental advantage. Currently the numbers and units provided by the fluorimeters (chlorophyll, gelbstoff and hydrocarbons) and the luminescence sensors mean nothing to the operator without the incorporation of suitable training in the mariner and sub-mariner curriculum. And, the multi-variable interpretation of these data streams is where the real added value for environmental advantage could arise. This requires the development of tactical environmental prediction firmware for the real-time guidance of operations. For example a coincident increase in gelbstoff fluorescence with decreasing chlorophyll(a) fluorescence would suggest a possible change towards a dinoflagellate dominated phytoplankton population and the likelihood of significant vessel wake-driven luminescence at perhaps the 40% risk level. If we further combine this with a knowledge of oceanographic characteristics then perhaps this risk might be reduced to 20% or increased to 70%. The overall OBS programme has three parts, for which this exchange project OBS(1) will form the foundation first part. OBS(1) is a collaborative fact-finding mission to catalogue the current state of operational ability, technical procurement, mature research knowledge and operational requirements. The most important overall objectives of OBS(1) are firstly to set the details for the incorporation of long term biogeochemical operational training in the mariner and sub-mariner syllabus, to be provided by front line researchers supported by the Royal Navy under OBS(2). Secondly OBS(1) will set out the framework for the research and development of operational environmental prediction tools under OBS(3); involving close interaction with research organisations and industry. This component will develop the operator interface of the future and will be supported by dstl.

The dynamics of sediment fluxes in the fluvial and marine environments are still poorly known, particularly at a regional scale. Measurement techniques as well as numerical models still require research in order to assess these fluxes from their continental source to the shelf edge; this reseach would also benefit from improved and shared monitoring networks. SunRISE gathers a large community of French and European research laboratories, consulting companies and governing agencies in order to address i) climate change related issues, particularly in the current context of coastal vulnerability, ii) European Directives issues, for which pertinent state indicators and monitoring strategies have to be developed. SunRISE is organized around 5 worpackages (WP) aiming at identifying which are the priority research topics to address in order to tackle the following issues : “sediment fluxes at a regional scale in a changing climate”, and “definition of state indicators for the physical parameters describing the marine environment”. WP1 will define the priority processes to account for, WP2 will define the necessary innovations in terms of observation, WP3 will investigate the various modelling approaches, WP4 will work on the research needed in order to come up with state indicators. The last WP is transversal and will help define the main orientations of projects to be designed to answer 2016 ANR and/or H2020 calls for proposals. The financial support sought from the ANR will contribute to fund workshops aiming at writing these projects. The originality of this network lies in the fact that it will bring together Frecnh and European teams working at defining integrative descriptors of the physical regional and coastal environment. Such a structure is essential in order to lead coordinated action at the European level, in particular in the framework of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). The strong participation of European partners (who accepted to lead three of the five WPs on their own budgets) illustrates this initiative relevance.

The high latitude seas of the North Atlantic are currently experiencing major changes (ocean warming, declining ice cover and major increases in heat loss to the atmosphere) associated with man-made climate change. These seas, specifically the Labrador, Irminger and Nordic (LIN) Seas are the key northern sites for the global ocean circulation. In recent research, we developed a temperature dataset spanning 2004-2008 for the Labrador and Irminger Seas from Argo float and Marine Mammal-Borne Sensor (MMBS) data. Our analysis of this dataset revealed that estimates of ocean boundary current temperatures in widely used international datasets are too warm by up to 2 deg Centigrade. Identification of such warm biases is critical to both observation and model-based studies of climate change impacts in this region. In our earlier study, we were restricted to a small spatial domain and a limited time period ending in 2008. However, as a result of expansion of the Argo float programme, new availability of additional MMBS data and the inclusion for the first time of glider and ship based measurements, we are now in position to develop a new much-enhanced dataset. Specifically, we are now able to extend the spatial domain to include the Nordic Seas (thereby including all North Atlantic dense water formation regions) and the time period to 2003-2012 (allowing a full examination of key changes in the past decade). In addition, it is now possible to include salinity as well as temperature, thereby enabling new insights into changing freshwater content and ocean density. We propose to develop a world-leading new T and S dataset covering the Labrador, Irminger and Nordic Seas, which will be the first to employ all available observations across this region. Furthermore, we will use the new dataset to a.) determine recent and ongoing changes in the LIN Seas, and b.) critically evaluate the NEMO ocean model (NERCs flagship computer model of the ocean) and thus identify the extent to which it can be relied upon to provide further insights in this area. The proposed research is a major advance on our previous study and is vital as the LIN Seas are widely recognised to be a key indicator region for the early detection of climate change impacts.

Blue-Action will provide fundamental and empirically-grounded, executable science that quantifies and explains the role of a changing Arctic in increasing predictive capability of weather and climate of the Northern Hemisphere.To achieve this Blue-Action will take a transdisciplinary approach, bridging scientific understanding within Arctic climate, weather and risk management research, with key stakeholder knowledge of the impacts of climatic weather extremes and hazardous events; leading to the co-design of better services.This bridge will build on innovative statistical and dynamical approaches to predict weather and climate extremes. In dialogue with users, Blue-Arctic will take stock in existing knowledge about cross-sectoral impacts and vulnerabilities with respect to the occurrence of these events when associated to weather and climate predictions. Modeling and prediction capabilities will be enhanced by targeting firstly, lower latitude oceanic and atmospheric drivers of regional Arctic changes and secondly, Arctic impacts on Northern Hemisphere climate and weather extremes. Coordinated multi-model experiments will be key to test new higher resolution model configurations, innovative methods to reduce forecast error, and advanced methods to improve uptake of new Earth observations assets are planned. Blue-Action thereby demonstrates how such an uptake may assist in creating better optimized observation system for various modelling applications. The improved robust and reliable forecasting can help meteorological and climate services to better deliver tailored predictions and advice, including sub-seasonal to seasonal time scales, will take Arctic climate prediction beyond seasons and to teleconnections over the Northern Hemisphere. Blue-Action will through its concerted efforts therefore contribute to the improvement of climate models to represent Arctic warming realistically and address its impact on regional and global atmospheric and oceanic circulation.

Our oceans are the least-explored region of planet Earth. Protection and sustainable development of ocean resources presents formidable challenges. Robots will play an increasingly key role in the near future and this role will expand and become more challenging as we extend into deeper, remote and hostile marine environments. Europe leads in many aspects of maritime, but lacks well integrated and coordinated oceanic robotic infrastructure or presence. The marine-robotics industry is growing rapidly. It is a crucial high-value/high-cost sector with considerable entry-barriers to R&D. The full growth potential of this industry will be greatly enhanced with access to shared robotic research infrastructure. EUMarineRobots (EUMR) proposes an access-infrastructure for the deployment of a full-range of aerial, surface and sub-surface marine robotic assets, the combined value of which is far greater than the sum of their parts. EUMR will open transnational access to significant national marine robotics R&D assets across Europe. The EUMR consortium comprises 15 partners from 10 countries who, collectively, can deploy a comprehensive portfolio of marine robotic assets with required associated support assets and expertise. The network is a strong and balanced grouping of globally distinguished key players with diverse, track-record of excellence across marine / robotic sectors. Partners are members of a wide variety of existing networks, and research infrastructure collaborations both formal and informal across Europe and the world. EUMR is a first stage in aggregating these networks and assets as world-leading for support and growth of a strong community of practice in marine robotics and marine.