Blue-Cloud 2026 aims at further evolving the pilot Blue-Cloud project into a Federated European Ecosystem to deliver FAIR & Open data and analytical services for research of oceans, EU seas, coastal & inland waters. It develops a thematic marine extension to the ESOC in support of the Green Deal, Destination Earth, the Mission Restore our Oceans and Water by 2030, and UN SDGs, ultimately providing a core data service for the Digital Twin of the Ocean.
Over the course of 42 months Blue-Cloud will evolve the Blue-Cloud core services, i.e. the federated Data Discovery & Access Service (DD&AS), the scalable Virtual Research Environment (VRE) and the Virtual Labs, and adapted for connecting additional e-infrastructures, integrating more blue analytical services, configuring more Virtual Labs, improving services for uptake of new data sets from a multitude of data originators (such as SeaDataNet, EurOBIS, Euro-Argo, ELIXIR-ENA, SOCAT, EcoTaxa, and ICOS-Ocean), and major e-infrastructures, namely EUDAT, D4Science, and WEkEO (CMEMS DIAS) and for discovery and access to their structured data collections ultimately targeting broader (groups of) users. A set of workbenches tested for different usages, generating harmonised Essential Ocean Variables in physics, chemistry and biology – will provide harmonised and consistent datasets for the rapid and systematic generation of the best derived data products that will remain at the disposal of EU operational services such as EMODnet and Copernicus. Blue-Cloud 2026 will also put training and capacity building under the spotlight, to improve the quantity, quality, accessibility, interoperability, and usability of marine information for decision making, enabling new opportunities in the maritime sectors. A Training Academy will deliver a series of online courses on how to make best use of Blue-Cloud services and VLabs, and on how to use and share FAIR data from marine RIs and data repositories. Blue-Cloud 2026’s overall Objective is to develop further the European federation of marine and inland water data management infrastructures and its services with increased FAIRness, advanced analytical capabilities, and higher quality data provision, by expanding the federated approach of Blue-Cloud, involving more aquatic data stakeholders, and interacting with EOSC developments, in support of the EU Green Deal, UN SDG, EU Destination Earth, and the EU Mission Starfish on healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters. This advanced ecosystem will provide a core data service for the Digital Twin of the Ocean, mobilising and making available major additional data resources as validated and harmonised in-situ data by means of Data Lakes.
