Euro GO-SHIP: developing a Research Infrastructure concept to support European hydrography

Observations from ships, and in particular water column measurements, remain the backbone of much Oceanographic Science, including fisheries, regional oceanography, and global climate science. Every coastal country in Europe has a programme of such observations that feeds data into evaluations in support of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive with these programmes being organised into both regional clusters and serving as contributions to wider international networks. In 2019, as part of the OceanOBS conference, networks identified gaps in their requirements for support and here we propose a programme to address these requirements within the context of the European RI landscape. The proposed new services and access opportunities based on the network needs presented at OceanOBS are:•shared facilities such as training, best practices, access to capability and access to equipment through a European Marine Equipment Pool (EMEP)•data curation to ensure fit for purpose data systems and metadata for both real-time and delayed mode quality-controlled data•secondary quality control to increase consistency and add uncertainty estimates to observations. These will be refined by broad consultation with data originators, governments, funders and end-users. In addition, pilot activities will both provide immediate support to the networks and help to refine a statement of requirements. These requirements will be compared to the set of services already available within the European RI Landscape and on the basis of this a new structure for supporting European Hydrography proposed. Possible models range from complete service delivery within existing RIs and the establishment of no new structures through to the creation of an RI with a set of services unavailable elsewhere.