Marinas across Europe are becoming scientific monitoring platforms with JPI Oceans' Joint Action European Marinas Network. This initiative is enhancing the role of marinas as ocean observing hubs, transforming existing maritime infrastructure into a powerful network for marine research and environmental management.

About JPI Oceans

The Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans) is a pan-European platform that increases the efficiency and impact of research and innovation for sustainably healthy and productive seas and oceans. Our mission is clear: to facilitate science by coordinating it and consequently enabling its informed policy delivery. We achieve this by uniting our member states' national strategies into a joint framework addressing marine and maritime challenges.

The European Marinas Network in a nutshell

The European Marinas Network Joint Action, launched in November 2024, perfectly exemplifies this collaborative approach. Co-led by Italy and Greece and with the participation of Blue Flag, TransEurope Marinas, European Boating Industry, Assomarinas and others, this Knowledge Hub aims to position Europe's approximately 10,000 marinas as potential environmental monitoring hubs.

The JPI Oceans Joint Action on the European Marinas Network aims to explore different avenues to leverage the value and potential of marinas as infrastructures for ocean observing, marine research and citizen science. Through the establishment of a marina-based monitoring network, oceanographic and meteorological parameters can be recorded, improving data coverage and complementing satellite data for coastal areas to take coastal management to a new level.

The European Marinas Network is in close collaboration with the innovation platform SOOP “Shaping an Ocean of Possibilities for science-industry collaboration” and their sensors, sophisticated yet cost-effective monitoring equipment that can be deployed on marina infrastructure. These sensors record crucial parameters including water temperature and sea level, providing real-time data that can be used, for example, to generate information on marine heat waves or sea level changes. Such measurements provide valuable information for the regulating authorities to ensure the safety of the coastal regions. This is especially relevant considering coastal regions often have a high population and tourist densities, and this framework positions marinas at the frontline of informing and therefore helps coastal communities through scientific engagement. In addition, the data obtained can be used for the environmental management of marinas and coastal regions too.

The initiative also connects with the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet), ensuring that the data generated feeds into Europe's comprehensive marine data infrastructure. This integration maximises the value of every data point collected, contributing to broader scientific understanding while maintaining data quality and accessibility standards.

The European Marinas Network Joint Action builds upon JPI Oceans' broader research portfolio and recent publications. JPI Oceans has been actively advancing knowledge in several topics spacing from blue carbon to microplastics research, changing marine lightscapes and ocean oxygen loss. These established research areas provide valuable scientific context and methodological frameworks that will inform the development of our budding European Marinas Network.