BioGeoSea Project Coordinator Toste Tanhua participated in the EuroGEO Marine & Coastal Action Group Workshop: Data to Intelligence – Co-creating Strategy with EU Initiatives, held in Geneva, Switzerland, on 6–7 July 2026. BioGeoSea’s sister project BioEcoOcean was also represented by its coordinator, Lina Mtwana Nordlund. Together, they highlighted that strengthening collaboration between projects is essential to create lasting impact beyond individual initiatives.
The workshop brought together stakeholders from European projects and initiatives working across the data-to-intelligence value chain to co-design strategies for transforming Earth observation data into actionable knowledge for marine and coastal decision-making. Discussions focused on enhancing collaboration, strengthening coastal resilience, and supporting key European priorities, including the European Green Deal, the Digital Twin of the Ocean, and the European Ocean Pact.
BioGeoSea contributed to discussions on how integrated ocean observations and biogeochemical knowledge can better support sustainable ocean management and strengthen long-term collaboration across European initiatives.
A key message emerging from the workshop was that the challenge is not only to collect the right observations, but also to connect people, disciplines, data, and users so that ocean knowledge can effectively support decision-making. This is exactly the vision behind the Essential Ocean Variables (EOV) Network, developed by EuroGOOS together with the three sister projects BioGeoSea, BioEcoOcean, and ObsSea4Clim.
Participants also agreed that achieving real impact requires more than delivering high-quality data. It depends on understanding user needs, building trusted partnerships, and translating observations into knowledge that enables informed action. Strengthening cooperation across projects and initiatives will be essential to ensuring that European ocean observing efforts continue to deliver lasting value for science, policy, and society.
Many thanks to the organisers and all participants for the inspiring discussions. We look forward to continuing these conversations and working together to turn ideas into action.
Links:
–> Event page:
–> concept note of the meeting.
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