Establishment of EOREA

EOREA will contribute to achieving the ambition of EU and UN priorities, through structured participation in structuring initiatives (i.e. Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters, Knowledge and Innovation Community on the Ocean, EU Climate Law, Blue Economy Partnership, European Digital Twin of the Ocean). EOREA will also address the main EU and global challenges in the field of ocean-related issues, including the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (ocean-climate link, pollutants and contaminants dispersal, blue economy, digital twin of the ocean, space-ocean link, engagement with society at large, etc.).

EOREA materializes the willingness of 13 founding institutions to pool their expertise and infrastructure to advance ocean research and education at the continental level. Other European institutions are welcome to join according to the development plan of the pilot phase. Hence, EOREA will help Europe take a step forward in sharing capabilities to shape a European integrated approach in Research and Education. Fourteen research and higher education institutions wish to found an alliance that facilitate bottom-up initiatives building on their complementary strengths, with the support of the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament. The list of the institutions is reported hereunder.

To achieve these ambitions, EOREA Members will rely on the sharing of knowledge through the definition of interdisciplinary and transnational joint programmes of research and education. Through them, EOREA will contribute to tackle the lack of integration and collaboration at the EU level in the field of ocean science and set up or fuel EU-wide education programmes relying on excellent scientific capacities.

Through the joint programmes, universities and research institutes involved in EOREA plan to define targets to be met by 2030 so as to align with and contribute to the Mission’s objectives.

EOREA’s activities stem from the alliance’s bottom-up character. Through thematic joint programmes, institutions will perform challenge-based research activities by exchanging and aligning on going activities running into each participating institution at national level ; develop joint education activities on the basis of the knowledge derived from the aligned; research activities; nurture existing training programmes for them to benefit from the latest scientific findings; and act as an arena to provide global, European and national institutions and authorities with policy advice.