HCMR-IO contact person: Dr. Sakellariou Dimitrios
Duration: June 2020 – June 2021

HCMR Contact Person: Paraskevi Drakopoulou
Project coordinator: EOMAP GMBH & CO KG, Germany, Dr. Knut Hartmann
Funding Source: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101004221
Budget: EUR 2.214.145,00
IO Budget: EUR 298.687,50
Duration: 1/11/2020 – 31/10/2023

HCMR contact person: Dr. Paraskevi Pitta
Duration: 1/1/2017 – 31/08/2021

HCMR Contact Person: Tsapakis Manolis

Duration: 28/7/2020 – 27/7/2023

Geographic Coverage: Greece

Total Financing: 801.205,00 Euros

HCMR contact person: Leonidas Perivoliotis
Geographic Coverage: Global Ocean
Duration: 2017-2019

HCMR contact person: Dr. Kalliopi Pagou
Geographic Coverage:Mediterranean and European – Greece,Italy,France,Cyprus,Malta,Croatia,Spain,Slovenia,Portugal
Duration:1/10/2016 – 31/03/2021

The Horizon 2020 project entitled “Cleaning litter by developing and Applying Innovative Methods in European Seas”, acronym CLAIM, seeks new strategies focusing on marine plastic litter. Coordinated by HCMR, brings together nineteen institutions, six of which are SMEs, from across Europe, Lebanon and Tunisia.

It develops five innovative cleaning technologies and approaches, targeting the prevention and in situ management of visible (macroplastics >5mm) and invisible (micro <5 mm up to 1 μm and nanoplastics < 1 μm) marine litter at their point of introduction to the marine environment (e.g. river runoff and waste water treatment plants) in the Mediterranean and the Baltic seas. Right after an effective pre-filtering system has sorted and collected litter, a photocatalytic nanocoating device will degrade microplastics in wastewater treatment plants. At river mouths, innovative floating barriers has been already developed to collect and monitor visible litter, while mounted on ships or placed in ports and marinas, a small-scale thermal treatment device (pyrolizer) will be used to turn collected litter intro energy powering ships and heating up ports. A CLAIM network of FerryBox systems will operate on ships in the Baltic, West & East Mediterranean mounted with an automated seawater sampling device & passive flow-through filtering system. The project will facilitate better governance of the issue of marine litter by providing tools such as new models and concentration maps to give insights into the distribution of macroplastics and microplastics and scenarios to determine the efficiency of CLAIM’s technologies.

New business models will be introduced to enhance the economic feasibility of upscaling the proposed innovations. An ecosystem approach will guide the project through the evaluation of the potential benefit from the proposed litter cleaning methods to ecosystem services and human well-being.

Ιmplemented under the sub-project 3 of the project “Infrastructure of national research networks in the fields of Precision Medicine, Quantum Technology and Climate Change”, funded by the Public Investment Program of Greece, General Secretary of Research and Technology/Ministry of Development and Investments.

Το Εθνικό Δίκτυο για την Κλιματική Αλλαγή – CLIMPACT είναι μια σημαντική Εθνική πρωτοβουλία που χρηματοδοτείται από το Υπουργείο Ανάπτυξης και Επενδύσεων, με στόχο την ενοποίηση, εναρμονισμό και βελτιστοποίηση των υφιστάμενων κλιματικών υπηρεσιών και συστημάτων έγκαιρης προειδοποίησης για έντονα φυσικά φαινόμενα και φυσικές καταστροφές, συμπεριλαμβανομένων της συλλογής δεδομένων από τις σχετικές εθνικές υποδομές.

Συντονίζεται από το Εθνικό Αστεροσκοπείο Αθηνών (ΕΑΑ) και αποτελείται από άλλους 10 Εθνικούς επιστημονικούς φορείς: την Ακαδημία Αθηνών (ΑΑ), το Εθνικό Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών (ΕΚΠΑ), το Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης (ΑΠΘ), το Ελληνικό Κέντρο Θαλάσσιων Ερευνών (ΕΛΚΕΘΕ), το Εθνικό Κέντρο Έρευνας Φυσικών Επιστημών ‘’Δημόκριτος’’, το Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο (ΕΜΠ), το Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης (ΠΚ), το Πολυτεχνείο Κρήτης (Πολ. Κ), το Ερευνητικό Κέντρο ΑΘΗΝΑ και το Εθνικό Κέντρο Κοινωνικών Ερευνών (ΕΚΚΕ).

Το Ελληνικό Κέντρο Θαλασσίων Ερευνών είναι υπεύθυνο για τον συντονισμό των δράσεων του Πυλώνα 1 που τιτλοφορείται «Επιστήμη και Υψηλής ποιότητας δεδομένα σχετιζόμενα με την Κλιματική Αλλαγή» και θα υλοποιηθεί σε συνεργασία των: Ακαδημία Αθηνών, ΕΛΚΕΘΕ, ΕΚΠΑ, ΕΚΕΦΕ-ΔΗΜΟΚΡΙΤΟΣ, ΕΑΑ, ΠΚ, ΑΠΘ, ΕΜΠ, & Πολ. Κ.

Οι δράσεις του Πυλώνα 1 αφορούν τη λήψη και παροχή κλιματικών παραμέτρων και εκτιμήσεων από το παλαιοκλίμα μέχρι το πρόσφατο παρελθόν και το παρόν. Συμπεριλαμβάνονται κλιματικές αλλαγές από την αρχαιότητα μέχρι την έναρξη των μετρήσεων στην Ελλάδα καθώς και χωροχρονικά χαρακτηριστικά του κλίματος από άμεσες και έμμεσες πηγές. Η σύγχρονη περίοδος περιλαμβάνει και τα θερμοκηπικά αέρια από εξειδικευμένες επίγειες και δορυφορικές παρατηρήσεις, υπολογιστικές προσομοιώσεις αλλά και πειραματικές εκστρατείες. Ο τελικός στόχος είναι η μετατροπή αυτών σε προϊόντα, εργαλεία και υπηρεσίες που υποστηρίζουν την προσαρμογή, τον μετριασμό και τη διαχείριση του κινδύνου καταστροφών από την ανθρωπογενή κλιματική αλλαγή.

COASTAL is financed by the Horizon2020 project no 773782 for the creation of a platform where coastal and rural business entrepreneurs, administrations, stakeholders, and natural and social science experts can collaborate for improving land-sea synergies.

This is achieved through the combination of local and scientific knowledge for the identification of problems and the development of practical and robust business road maps and strategic policy guidelines. The project follows a multi-actor approach for the creation of System Dynamics framework that is being used to analyze the social-environmental and economic land-sea interactions taking into consideration the short-, mid-and long-term impacts of decision making and feedback mechanisms on coastal and rural development.

The project is organized around interacting Multi-Actor Labs (MALs), combining qualitative and quantitative tools and expertise for six case studies representing the major coastal regions in the EU territory. The ultimate ambitions of COASTAL are to inspire strategic land-sea planning and contribute to the formulation of integrated coastal-rural regulations at the regional, national and EU level

HCMR contact person: Dr. Gerasimos Korres
Geographic Coverage: Mediterranean, Europe, Global
Duration:Phase I 2015 – 2018, Phase II 2018 – 2021

HCMR contact person: Leonidas Perivoliotis
Geographic Coverage: Mediterranean Sea
Duration: 2018-2021

HCMR contact person: Dr. Panagiotis Michalopoulos
Geographic Coverage:
Duration: 1/12/2016-30/11/2019

ECOHULLCLEAN project aims to develop a methodological approach and an integrated system for underwater ecological hull cleaning of vessels.
ECOHULLCLEAN objectives are the design, construction and commercial release of an underwater hull cleaning system capable of capturing and separating the bio fouling that is removed from vessels’ hull during underwater hull cleaning; separating bio fouling by returning discharging back to the environment water free of any alien invasive species; and managing bio-waste properly for the purpose of processing and utilizing it wherever possible.
The proposed study area is the Saronikos Gulf, one of the hot spot areas of alien species in the Hellenic Seas.
The project is coordinated by DIVING STATUS in collaboration with the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR)

The European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet) is a long term marine data initiative from the European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) involving and networking more than 150 organizations for assembling marine data, products, and metadata.

The EMODnetdata infrastructure is developed in three major phases (Phase I (2009-2013), Phase 2 (2013-2017) and Phase 3 (2017 – 2020)) by running 8 operational thematic portals providing access to marine data for bathymetry, geology, seabed habitats, chemistry, biology, physics and human activities including a Data Ingestion facility.
The EMODnetHigh Resolution SeabedMapping (HRSM)project is part of the 3rd EMODnet phase(2017 – 2020) and is the successor of EMODnet Bathymetry Project (Phase I (2009-2013)& Phase 2 (2013-2017)) with an expanding consortium. The aim of the project is to further upgrade the EMODnet Digital Terrain Models (DTM) with more surveys, higher resolution and extended coverage of the Europe’s seas including coastal zone as well as the European Arctic region and Barents Sea.

Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) data will be included to cover gaps in survey coverage. The Institute of Oceanography of HCMR is responsible for the DTM production of the Eastern Mediterranean and Marmara Seas.

The European Marine Observation and Data network (EMODnet) is a long term marine data initiative from the European Commission Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) involving and networking more than 150 organizations for assembling marine data, products, and metadata.

The EMODnetdata infrastructure is developed in three major phases (Phase I (2009-2013), Phase 2 (2013-2017) and Phase 3 (2017 – 2020)) by running 8 operational thematic portals providing access to marine data for bathymetry, geology, seabed habitats, chemistry, biology, physics and human activities including a Data Ingestion facility.
The “EMODnet Ingestion and safe-keeping of marine data’ project seeks to identify and reach out to organisations from research, public, and private sectors who are holding marine datasets and who are not yet connected and contributing to the existing marine data management infrastructures which are driving EMODnet.

Those potential data providers should be motivated and supported to release their datasets for safekeeping and subsequent freely distribution and publication through EMODnet. The EMODnet Data Ingestion portal facilitates submission of their marine datasets for further processing, Open Data publishing and contributing to applications for society. HCMR is responsible for developing and maintain the Data Submission service.

EMSO pursues the long-term objective to be part of the upcoming European Ocean Observing System (EOOS), which is expected to integrate multiple platforms and data systems, including other ERICs, to achieve the first sustained, standardized and permanent observatory network of the European seas. EMSO ERIC coordinates the access to the facilities and supports the management of data streams from EMSO observatories.EMSO-Link (H2020-INFRADEV‐2016‐2017) will accelerate the establishment of EMSO ERIC governance rules and procedures and will facilitate the coordination of EMSO infrastructure construction, operation, extension and maintenance.

The EMSODEV (H2020-INFRADEV‐3‐2015) general objective is to catalyze the full operations of the EMSO distributed Research Infrastructure (EMSO-ERIC) through the development and deployment of the EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM). EGIM will provide accurate, consistent, comparable, long-term measurements of ocean parameters, which are key to addressing urgent societal and scientific challenges (e.g. climate change and hazards).

This will lead to an increased interoperability of EMSO nodes and to the common collection of ocean essential variable time series. The deployment and installation of the new observatory infrastructure- EMSO Generic Instrument Module (EGIM), is a major step forward in the direct ocean observationwithastandardised approach for European ocean observatories.

ENIRISST – Intelligent Research Infrastructure for Shipping, Supply Chain, Transport and Logistics
ENIRISST is a unique and pioneering Research Infrastructure that aims to fill a significant existing research gap in the fields of Shipping, Supply Chain and Transport in Greece. It is composed of 11 Partners which include 8 Educational Institutions and 3 Research Centers in Greece. It combines the collection and processing of data, the development of innovative models and programming techniques, the development of useful applications, secure and user-friendly, and finally the development of digital observatories aimed at support for public and private stakeholders (businesses, public bodies, research organizations, etc.). In this way, the vision of ENIRISST is to become a center of excellence that will promote and support research in its scientific fields.
Role of IO: Collect and analyze data on the impact of maritime activities on the marine environment of coastal and offshore areas of interest (i.e. Ports, national / international shipping / trade routes) as part of the Maritime Impact & Pollution Information Service, participation in joint research activities and deliverables.
Funding: NSRF 2014-2020 Action “Strengthening Research and Innovation Infrastructures” and financed by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (MIS 5027930)

The overarching objective of Euro-Argo RISE (Euro-Argo Research Infrastructure Sustainability and Enhancement) is to enhance and extend the capabilities of the Argo network, to provide essential ocean observations, to answer new societal and scientific challenges, and support 1) ocean and climate change research, 2) climate change monitoring (characterizing climate change impact on the ocean physics and chemistry, 3) seasonal and climate change forecasting by improving the 4D description of the ocean state, 4) ocean analysis and forecasting and associated ocean services including Copernicus Services.

In addition, the project’s main target is to reinforce the development of the European Research Infrastructure Euro-Argo ERIC, which is a part of the ESFRI roadmap, supporting its economic and operational viability and gaining the trust and awareness of users.

Under the framework of Euro-Argo RISE HCMR is leading Task 6.1 which objective is the promotion and expansion of Argo in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, and Task 8.1 which objective is to develop links with other ERICs and research communities and to define strategy in collaboration with other networks for shelf-open ocean boundaries. Furthermore HCMR contributes in WP7 activities on the promotion and improvement of the data access and usage of Argo, on the investigation of the potential links with the national MSFD implementation, and the enhancement of the Argo educational activities.

Sustained observation of the seas and oceans is currently a high priority for European marine and maritime activities, as encapsulated in the recent EurOCEAN2010 conference declaration (Ostend, October 2010).

In Europe, the FixO3 community is already contributing to key projects including EMSO, ICOS and SIOS, named on the ESFRI list and which defines the strategy and priorities for European Research Infrastructures. An important driver for much of these developments is the ongoing commitment of member states to the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the environmental pillar of the Integrated Maritime Policy (2007).

Through FixO3 (FP7 – INFRA-2012-1.1.11) all of the sustained open ocean multidisciplinary observatories which are operated by EU institutions are bought together as one coordinated network. This extends the geographical coverage substantially and now stretches from the Arctic to the Antarctic and throughout the Mediterranean.

Project HarmoNIA –ADRION on ‘Harmonization and Networking for Contaminant assessment in the Ionian Adriatic Seas’  aims to  enhance  the  capacity  to  tackle  environmental  vulnerability  and  safeguard  ecosystem  services  at transnational scale. HarmoNIA objectives are: i) to share best practices to support the harmonized implementation of marine environmental directives in the ADRION region; ii) to  strengthen  the  network  of  data  infrastructures  to  facilitate  access  and  re-use  of  marine  data  among  countries bordering the Adriatic – Ionian Seas. Focusing on pollution from offshore drilling and accidents HarmoNIA will evaluate the risk of contaminant dispersion.

The Hellenic Petroleum West Patraikos Exploration and Production of Hydrocarbons S.A. has assigned IO/HCMR the implementation of the Site Survey and Environmental Sampling Habitat Assessment Baseline Survey in the West Patraikos License Area. This survey is aimed to be an integral part of the Environmental Baseline Report (Stage 2), the Environmental Impact Assessment and the Shallow Hazard Assessment ahead of drilling operations in the West Patraikos Lease Area.

The survey foresees the use of R/V AEGAEO supported by the assistant vessel ALKYON and the main objectives are (i) to assist in the identification of all geo-hazards, shallow drilling hazards and geological conditions relating to drilling operations; (ii) to identify any seabed obstructions; (iii) to Identify and map any protected or sensitive habitats at the well site and across the coastal areas and identify any areas of environmental interest, which could be impacted by anchoring or drilling; (iv) to Establish Environmental Baseline conditions.

The Hellenic Integrated Marine Inland water Observing, Forecasting and offshore Technology System (HIMIOFoTS) includes integrated approaches in Marine observation and forecasting systems, coastal monitoring and an innovative Hydro-Environmental Monitoring and information Network. The infrastructure incorporates the following interrelated components:

(a) The Hellenic Integrated Marine Observing and Forecasting System (HIMOFS), a cluster of already-existing and under-implementation marine observing systems coupled with a full range of forecasting operational models.

(b) The Open Hydrosystem Information Network, an integrated information infrastructure for the collection, management and free dissemination of hydrological and environmental information related to the inland waters of the country.

“Impacts of marine litter on sea turtles and biota” in RSC and MSFD areas (Indicator Impact Taxa) – INDICIT II
Plastic items compose more than 80% of the litter observed offshore and on beaches. They are omnipresent and accumulate for years to centuries in the seas. Marine taxa such as sea turtles have wide geographic range (Atlantic and Mediterranean), use different habitat compartments (neritic to pelagic) and are known to ingest marine debris. As a consequence, the MSFD Task Group on Marine Litter suggested the debris items ingested by sea turtles as an indicator for the monitoring of GES for D10. The initial assessment of GES and the methodological standard procedures for the use of this indicator urgently need to be implemented in order to meet the regional (e.g. within RSCs) and global MSFD requirements and allow to evaluate the efficiency of programmes of measures such as the ban of plastic bag and other legislative decision in EU countries.The INDICIT-II project is a follow-up of the INDICIT project (2017-19). INDICIT-II project aims to capitalize the INDICIT results concerning the networking, the elaboration of standard guidelines, the collection of large standard data set and the evaluation of GES scenario for the indicator “Litter ingested by sea turtles”, as well as to identify the key elements for the implementation of two other indicators for the monitoring of litter impacts “Biota entanglement in debris” and “Microdebris ingestion by biota”. INDICIT II involves 12 partners from the public sector (7 EU countries and 2 non-EU countries), all contracting parties to the OSPAR (Atlantic) and/or Barcelona (Mediterranean) conventions. The general objectives are (1) to capitalize the practical outcomes related to networking, development of standardized tools, gathering of standard data and GES assessments for the Indicator “Litter ingested by sea turtles”, (2) to support the implementation of the indicators “Entanglement of sea turtles, birds, cetaceans in floating debris” and “Micro-plastic ingestion by fish and sea turtles”, (3) to support the next 6-year cycle of MSFD implementation by testing the indicators (especially the more advanced “Litter ingested by sea turtles”) in response to National PoMs in pilot areas. By developing standardized knowledge for several fauna taxa at an extended spatial level, the project will contribute to provide integrative tools to assess anthropogenic risks and distance to GES especially in the framework of D10. Finally, the project aims to foster synergies with other EU projects and to transfer knowledge to competent authorities in three regional seas of priority, the North-East Atlantic Ocean, the Macaronesia and the Mediterranean Sea.

KAUST Coastal Monitoring Project aims to define the baseline environmental conditions in relation to the existing and future pressures on the coastal zone of Saudi Arabia (Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf). It is the starting part of the initiative for the Marine and Coastal Environment Protection (MCEP) of the Saudi Arabia.
The overarching objective of the project is to prepare a national Status Quo Assessment that will set priorities for the Saudi Arabia coastal environment. The work toward this goal will entail scaling the relative impact of coastal pollution sources and other causes of environmental degradation, identifying preventive and remedial actions, and devising detailed monitoring strategies.
The project is organized around tasks on: Literature; Legal and Policy review; Cause analysis for the identification of environmental hot spots in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf; Gap analysis in environmental issues; Field surveillance in the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf for the assessment of the pollution status; Design and implementation plans for marine coastal initiative.
It is a collaboration project between the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and HCMR with the participation of other institutions: The National Centre for Environmental Compliance (NCEC), Saudi; ETRC-UMA – European Topic Centre at the University of Malaga, Spain; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA; Reef Ecologic, Australia; Sustain Value, UK; The Empire Egypt for Environmental Services and Trade, Egypt.

According to the European Commission, the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) is a multi-criteria measure of the environmental performance of a good or service that considers its whole life cycle, i.e. from extraction of raw materials, through production and use, to final waste management. Guidance for PEF calculation has not yet been developed for one of the most important commercial products on a global scale; fishery products.

The LIFE+ AQUAPEF project aims to promote the production and distribution of sustainable fishery products in the Mediterranean aquaculture sector in accordance to the PEF initiative. Specifically, the project aims to develop appropriate tools to facilitate environmental and biological data availability, PEF calculation, verification, and B2B and B2C communication. The project takes into account stakeholders along the production chain (companies, consumers, administration) with the ultimate aim to identify strategies that enhance the production of sustainable fish-farm products and further, to demonstrate and replicate relevant improvements in seabass and seabream fish farms.

MARine monitoring system of the Hellenic Seas using REmote sensing satellite data and in-situ measurements (MARRE)

The objective of the project is the development of an open source GIS system for monitoring the marine environment by using satellite remote sensing data combined with field measurements (historical and real-time data). The project will develop innovative products to monitor the status of the marine environment using free satellite observation data. These new products will provide information on water quality and will be derived from the in-situ measurements of the participating institutions as well as from available data at European repositories. In particular, using high-resolution satellite data such as Sentinel data in combination with in-situ measurements at Greek seas, essential environmental parameters such as chlorophyll concentration and turbidity will be assessed. The combined use of satellite data and in-situ measurements will evaluate and improve existing empirical algorithms. As a result, the derived products will be adapted to local conditions and the specific features of Greek seas. Importance will be given to the monitoring of the marine biodiversity by the mapping and the monitoring of the Posidonia meadows.

MARRE project is being implemented in the framework of the “RESEARCH-CREATE-INNOVATIVE” Action and is co-financed by the European Union and national resources through the Operational Programme Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (EPAnEK, NSRF 2014-2020) of the Ministry of Economy and Development.

This project is financed by DG Environment with the aim to support the Competent Authorities (CAs) of the Mediterranean Member States towards the implementation of the second phase of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, its New GES decision and Programme of Measures.

Further to this, the project contributes to regional/subregional cooperation supporting the 2nd cycle of the MSFD and play a strategic role to the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) having within the Mediterranean region 4 National Competent Authorities (Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Croatia) as partners within the project’s consortium, therefore it has an Institutional role reflected in the Activities undertaken to ensure that the CAs are involved and consulted throughout the work of the project and that the deliverables and other outcomes of the project could/should be endorsed by the Competent Authorities to reflect their views and needs, in the extend is possible.

Furthermore, the project has provisions for strong effective links with the Non EU Mediterranean States, through UNEP/MAP involvement in its Advisory Board and the RACs and Plan Blue participation as partners. The project is coordinated by HCMR.