Work Packages

The project is made up of 12 work packages (WP):

The main objective of WP1 is to design and setup innovative monitoring approaches based on the JERICO-RI system of systems and through cooperation with other coastal data providers and users, to develop a long-term vision for the JERICO-RI infrastructure and to propose an overall science strategy for JERICO-RI. WP1 builds upon the science strategy elaborated within the H2020-JERICO-NEXT project (2015-2019), which was structured around four key pillars:

  1. Elaborating scientifically-sound integrated multidisciplinary observations;
  2. Achieving technological developments allowing observation in all disciplines of marine sciences and based on a thorough assessment of emerging enabling technologies;
  3. Linking with all relevant sources of observations in European coastal seas including their littoral components; and
  4. Maximizing societal value by addressing concerns over multiple spatial scales.

WP1 is structured through three tasks aiming at providing, through tight interactions with all other activities in the project, a robust science strategy and a vision on the next generation coastal observing system of systems.

By fostering cooperation and coordination with existing RIs at different regional, national and transnational levels, as well as other relevant communities (such as numerical modelling and Earth observation), WP2 will integrate knowledge, approaches, methods and activities between JERICO-RI and other Earth science communities and stakeholders. It will link communities from EO, in situ and modelling to work towards a community of communities including all levels of players to create interactions that will allow to address pressing societal problems that cannot be solved by single communities alone. We will

  1. Link JERICO-RI to geographically adjacent RIs from the marine, river and terrestrial communities and
  2. Liaise with entities in the remote sensing realm and coast-based industries.
  3. Cooperate with numerical modelling communities in creating integrated monitoring-modelling frameworks.
  4. Establish links with monitoring programmes, political decision makers and non- European ocean observing systems.

The approaches of WP2 will be informed by the strategic priorities of WP1, will rely on existing cooperation on regional levels as existing in WPs 3 and 4 and will inform implementation actions as explored in WP9, as well as communication and outreach activities in WP 10.

JERICO-RI observing platforms are distributed over many European coastal regions. This WP in JERICO-S3 will organize, harmonize, and integrate existing coastal observing activities and initiatives within regions and between regions. This will ensure that coastal observing efforts are tailored towards the needs and requirements of local/national/regional levels, but also that the JERICO-RI is coordinated and optimised at the European level for addressing larger scale issues.

For that purpose the WP will operate five Integrated Regional Sites (IRSs):

  • the Northern Adriatic Sea,
  • Iberian Atlantic Margin,
  • Bay of Biscay,
  • Skagerrak-Kattegat, and
  • Norwegian Sea.

This structuring is required for coordinating and developing region-specific observational strategies and approaches, promoting cooperation, integration, and development between countries adjacent to coastal observing regions, as well as providing the cooperational framework for regional data management and accessibility.

This will be accomplished through four tasks:

  • T3.1. Coordination and links to other WPs,
  • T3.2. Development of regional IRS strategy and business and sustainability plans,
  • T3.3. Integration and harmonisation within and between regions, and
  • T3.4. Regional data harmonisation/delivery and products.

WP4 will provide a proof of concept and feasibility for JERICO-RI Supersites designed for European coastal seas by implementing several Pilot Supersites (PSSs). PSSs will demonstrate the added values of integrated, state-of-the-art multidisciplinary and multiplatform observation capabilities, develop innovative hierarchical monitoring concepts for coastal seas, and create coastal collaboration platforms for other European environmental RIs, maritime industries, and regional environmental management of coastal ecosystems.

WP4 tests the Supersite concept and feasibility via a limited number of PSSs with the following objectives:

  1. Define (a) the key societal information needs regarding regional marine environments (regionalization and prioritization of Grand Challenges), and (b) the key scientific gaps in observing the regional coastal ecosystems, and to formulate accordingly the regional role of a Supersite including also the entire overview of coastal observatories operating in respective regions outside the partnership (Task 4.2).
  2. Demonstrate how transnational and multiplatform PSSs are to be implemented and regionally steered in order to become a network of Supersites, especially (a) how the sub-components are optimally operated when studying complex coastal challenges in an integrated approach, (b) how interactions with other environmental RI networks can be regionally organised, (c) how the interactions with modelling and satellite remote sensing communities are regionally implemented, and (d) how PSSs are able to upgrade harmonised and sustained observations and products that are usable for various societal and scientific needs (Task 4.3).
  3. Establish the between-PSS communication and steering, and their links to other observatories, and objectively evaluate the PSS implementation phase as input to the planning phase of JERICO-RI (Task 4.1).

The aim of the WP is to achieve the highest “readiness level” on harmonisation in the JERICO-RI with a coordinated and interactive implementation of multiplatform and multidisciplinary Best Practices among the RI operators.

Nowadays, best practices are widely spread and fragmented at platform or sensor level and available at different levels of development, depending on the maturity of the observing platform. In task 5.2, previous documentations for mature coastal observing platforms will be harmonized and updated, and toolboxes will be developed to allow a coordinated and interactive implementation of these best practices in the Pilot Super Sites (PSS) and Integrated Regional Sites (IRS) (e.g. dynamic technical inventory, collaborative support service, automated outage reporting and links to specific chapter/appendix of the BPs documentation).

In parallel, an effort will be made for progressing in the harmonization of procedures for pilot combined biogeochemical and biological systems (Task 5.3). Technical Steering Teams (ST) will be created for each class of platform to establish the Harmonization Support Desk. The Steering Teams will act as repository expert panels,that will also serve as peer reviewers of the BPs and contribute in the JERICO Label committee (WP11). This would also ensure the contribution to international efforts on harmonising best practices.

Moreover, the final objective is to define Performance Indicators for monitoring the operations at single platform level, and second, for monitoring the integration capabilities of each Regional Coastal Observatory (task 5.4). A JERICO-RI dashboard will be designed for its implementation in the JERICO e-infrastructure (WP8) as a hub for a coordinated management of the harmonized observing platforms and monitoring their Key Performance Indicators.

Coastal platforms and data are important components in the observation of the marine environment. There is a strong requirement for identifying, capturing and if necessary creating Best Practices for data lifecycle and data quality. JERICO-S3 via WP6 needs to provide tools and standards to stakeholders to enhance the access and use of coastal platforms and data. Objectives:

  1. Facilitate the data management for JERICO-RI coastal platforms, by identifying, agreeing, and supporting application of Best Practices from multiplatform perspective, covering the whole data lifecycle from data acquisition, processing and analysis, storage and preservation to publishing in the EU aggregators CMEMS, SeaDataNet and EMODNet.
  2. Identify and support the JERICO-RI target platforms – PSS, and platforms from JERICO-RI partners – representing the basis for the coastal component of a potential future EOOS.
  3. Identify, test and compile JERICO-RI tools for QC, data and metadata management, reformatting to support the data centers in data lifecycle management, implementing and using of JERICO-RI best practices.

WP6 will focus on data management support activities for the data life cycle of the IRS and PSS coastal platforms and sensors by (vertically – T6.2/6.3) contributing to the data management activities in (partly already existing) platform and sensor oriented workteams.

At the same time WP6 will work on collecting, documenting and – if required – define with the community the supporting standards as best practices. WP6 will explore data management/data quality control tools, a strategy for connection to international aggregators, and develop cross- platform coordinated activities (horizontal – T6.4). There will be a close cooperation with WP5, because both focus on the same platforms and sensors but the actions are foreseen to be complementary. The dataflows and especially standardisation and organisation of the various coastal platforms and sensors have a different level of maturity. For the more “mature” platforms highest impact will be achieved by very focused actions to optimise the data management, while for the less mature there will be more effort spent on the level of organisation, (conceptual) standards definition etc.

WP7 will develop and integrate innovative technologies and methodologies, in tight collaboration with WP 1, 3, 4, 5 and 8 (see tasks description). New technologies for interoperability of platforms (task 7.2), innovative sensors and sensor packages for multidisciplinary ecosystem monitoring, coupling physics, chemistry and biology will be developed and integrated, focussing on their in-situ operability (task 7.3). Data science methodologies, based on machine learning will be developed, integrated and tested (task 7.4) to enable event- based automated sampling. The JERICO research e-infrastructure will be developed (task 7.5), where a portal geared with a metadata-based registry system and search engine will ease discoverability and access to resources, including observation data and data product services, open software and best practices. Task 7.6 will finally bring developments to operation for in-situ demonstration on a reference site.

Establish and facilitate access to JERICO-S3 RI’s & Resources through well-established EC Trans national Access instruments. General Objective: Provide smooth and efficient access to JERICO-S3 Research Infrastructures and Resources for researchers or research teams from academy and industry using EU funded TA and VA instruments, assuring integration of TA activities in VA framework and enhancing the access to BCG and biological observing systems, thus reinforcing the ocean data value chain. The access opportunities will build long-term, collaborations between users and JERICO-S3 RIs. Specific objectives for TA:

  1. Provide coordinated ‘free of charge’ trans-national access to researchers or research teams from academy and industry to mature coastal infrastructures;
  2. Build long-term collaborations between end users and JERICO-S3 RIs;
  3. Promote innovation and the transfer of know-how in the coastal marine sector that offers rich promise for the future.;
  4. Assure integration with VA task.

This WP is dedicated to gathering information across JERICO-S3 and to prepare specific recommendations to progress towards a sustainable RI. The first task (Task 9.1) is dedicated to the coordination of the WP as other tasks are related together in a logical way. The 2nd task (Task 9.2) is aimed at mapping and analysing the role of users and stakeholders in the JERICO-RI to establish a so-called “User strategy”. Task 9.2 is a necessary step to guarantee that the science and technology design led in Task 9.3 will also fit the needs of key players, beyond those defined in WP1 which are more focused on the scientific and observational needs. Then Task 9.2 and Task 9.3 will directly feed the development of a business plan in Task 9.4. In addition, the definition of a User strategy in Task 9.2 as well as the design of the RI in Task 9.3 will help to propose several possible structures of the JERICO-RI governance in order to set the right relationships and roles between and in the governance bodies in agreement with the needs for operations (Task 9.5). The work will be led in collaboration with national RIs related to the coastal observations such as FINMARI (FI), ILICO(FR), COSYNA(G), POSEIDON(GR), SOCIB(SP) and other WPs of the project.

The WP aim is four-fold:

  1. To monitor the application of the plan for the dissemination and exploitation of the project’s results, to assess the expected impact of the project
  2. To drive the internal communication to share and agree on common mission, value and vision of the JERICO-RI, as well as those related to his structuration process towards sustainability, supporting thus the consortium to speak in voice towards externals;
  3. To promote the benefits for the scientific community: internal strengths and capabilities of the RI, including development of capacity building, sharing of expertises, training to access and use services of the e- infrastructure,
  4. To maximise the visibility of JERICO-RI as a provider of observatories, expertise and data, a to further engage with stakeholders.
WP11: Virtual Access*
Establish and facilitate access to JERICO-S3 RI’s & Resources through well-established EC Virtual Access instruments.

General Objective: Provide smooth and efficient access to the e-JERICO, the virtual part of the JERICO-RI and Resources for researchers or research teams from academy and industry using EU funded TA and VA instruments, assuring integration of TA activities in VA framework and enhancing the access to bio-geo- chemical and biological observing systems, thus reinforcing the ocean data value chain. The access opportunities will build long-term, collaborations between users and JERICO-S3 RIs.

Specific objectives for VA:

  1. Provide and facilitate centralized access to JERICO-S3 RI resources (data, products, services, best practices, VRE tools, platforms, e-libraries and e-training modules).
  2. Assure integration between both JERICO-S3 RI VA portal and JERICO-S3 RI D2P e-infrastructure.

*WP8-VA in DoA and WP11 on the portal

WP-12: Ethics requirements
 AFTER THE ETHICS REVIEW  – Summary report,

 the additional actions will be undertaken throughout the project :

Addition of WP12 – Ethics requirements

The ‘ethics requirements’ that the project must comply with are included as deliverables in this work package :

D12.2 : POPD, Requirement n°1 (IFREMER, M6) :The host institution must confirm that it has appointed a Data Protection Officer (DPO) and the contact details of the DPO are made available to all data subjects involved in the research. For host institutions not required to appoint a DPO under the GDPR a detailed data protection policy for the project must be kept on file.

In case personal data are transferred from the EU to a non-EU country or international organisation, confirmation that such transfers are in accordance with Chapter V of the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679, must be kept on file.

In case personal data are transferred from a non-EU country to the EU (or another third state), confirmation that such transfers comply with the laws of the country in which the data was collected must be kept on file. Detailed information on the informed consent procedures in regard to data processing must be kept on file.

D12.3: NEC, Requirement n°3 (IFREMER, M2): Details on the materials which will be imported to/exported from the EU must be kept on file.

D12.4: EPQ, Requirement n°4 (IFREMER, M6): Further information about the possible harm to the environment caused by the research and the measures that will be taken to mitigate the risks must be kept on file.

Details on the endangered species and/or protected areas involved in the research, and the measures to minimise the impact of the activities must be kept on file

To ensure efficient project coordination adapted to the specifications of the JERICO-S3 project and to achieve the project objectives and goals, the management is divided into the following sections:

  1. T11.1: day to day management including administrative, financial and technical management,
  2. T11.2: co- organisation of consortium meetings and workshops,
  3. T11.3: steering of several committees interacting with diverse WPs,
  4. T11.4 management strategies, internal rules and procedures will be detailed further in the Quality Assurance Plan.

In addition, 3 tasks are dedicated to the management of TA and VA activities, for which operating costs are led in WP8-VA & WP8-TA.