The final JERICO-DS General Assembly took place from Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 November 2023 at the Tallink Spa & Conference Hotel in Tallinn, Estonia.
The meeting kick-started with the welcome of Taavi Liblik, from TalTech – Tallinn University of Technology, the host organisation of this event. A presentation from the project coordinator, Laurent Delauney (Ifremer) followed.
The first day was dedicated to updates and outcomes of Workpackages 1-5. The main results of WP1, dedicated to the Science Strategy, were presented by Marcello G. Magaldi (CNR ISMAR). Jukka Seppälä (SYKE) and WP2 partners presented the Technical Design for an Operational JERICO-RI European Infrastructure, showing their work progress and the most important outcomes, which were discussed with the partners. Sebastien Legrand (RBINS) represented WP3 and spoke about the work done so far. Afterwards, Paul Gaughan (Marine Institute) described the work progress of the WP4, dedicated to the Sustainability, presenting the main results and outcomes for the design of the JERICO-RI European Infrastructure, as well as suggestions regarding the next steps. Laurent Delauney presented the outcomes from the WP5 on the governance and organisation, concluding the first day of the Final JERICO-DS General Assembly with the partner’s enthusiastic discussion on WP4 and WP5 presentations.
The 2nd day began with the Communication Strategy, presented by João Vitorino (Instituto Hidrográfico – Marinha Portuguesa), continued with the partners’ discussion about several important topics for the JERICO-RI European Infrastructure, such as the design study, questions to be solved, and services list to be defined, generating a prolific debate conducted by the project coordinator, Laurent Delauney.
The grand challenges of JERICO-DS were presented by Dominique Durand (COVARTEC AS), followed by sessions on the Socio-Economic Impacts by Constança Ramis Ferrer (SOCIB), the Users Needs by Alexandre Epinoux (IFREMER) and the project’s Bussiness Case by Paul Gaughan.
The 3rd and final day saw more engaging presentations and enthusiastic discussions. The first presentation by Holger Brix (Hereon) was dedicated to the complementarity of the JERICO-RI European Infrastructure with other already existing Research Infrastructures (RIs).
Laurent Delauney presented the plan for the Governance and Services, with contributions from several partners, and Jukka Seppälä described the road towards the preparation phase and planning of the next steps. The pathway to step-up from being an observational network to becoming a RI was introduced by Laurent Coppola (LOV).
The JERICO-DS General Assembly was concluded in the afternoon of the 23rd November 2022, with a final wrap up by Dominique Durand, and extensive discussions considering the project’s future plans.
