A Digital Ocean Forum for Europe - the highlights

Hosted by Mercator Ocean International (MOi), ‘The Digital Ocean Forum 2022’ was held in Paris, France between 20th - 21st April 2022. Iliad was represented in ‘Working Group 3 Digital Twin service’ by Vivian Kiousi and Arne J. Berre.

This forum was developed for the purpose of responding to several initiatives, this included the EU Mission ‘Restore our Oceans and Seas by 2030’. The Digital Ocean Forum succeeded in creating collaboration between European and international experts across various fields, with the aim of agreeing on essential principles and aspects for the European DTO.

The first day of the event included five Working Groups, which individually explored and elaborated on various elements of the future of the DTO. The second day highlighted each of the working group experts, which presented this information.

Fundamental highlights included:

• Work together to achieve key breakthroughs by 2024
• Establish the services to be provided by the European DTO
• Co-design digital ocean knowledge systems with users (policy, science, industry, citizens)
• Ensure alignment and enable integration of European DTO activities and outputs with other digital initiatives
• Establish agreed standards and taxonomy
• Work with the Commission to ensure that European projects enter their data into European data systems for use by all
• Make best use of Artificial Intelligence to maximise the potential of a DTO.
• Ensure that the DTO ocean knowledge system is based not only on scientific and technical aspects but also ‘ethics by design’, integrating concerns for social well-being and human rights.
• Recognize that DTO output and scenarios may need expert interpretation by scientists for use by the public.
• Address observation and knowledge gaps that limit DTO development

More information Forum highlights