Blue-Cloud 2026 builds upon the pilot Blue-Cloud project which established a pilot cyber platform, providing researchers access to multi-disciplinary datasets from observations, analytical services, and computing facilities essential for blue science. Core services delivered are the federated Data Discovery & Access Service (DD&AS), the Virtual Research Environment (VRE) and Virtual Labs. Blue-Cloud 2026 aims at a further evolution of its pilot ecosystem into a Federated European Ecosystem to deliver FAIR & Open data, analytical services, instrumental for deepening research of oceans, EU seas, coastal & inland waters. It develops a thematic marine extension to EOSC for open web-based science, & serves needs of the EU Blue Economy, Marine Environment and Marine Knowledge agendas. Blue-Cloud 2026 in 42 months covers activities at a growing number of federated environmental RIs to improve & optimise services for uptake of new data sets from a multitude of data originators and for discovery and access to their structured data collections. The 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. The modular architecture of the VRE is scalable & sustainable, fit for connecting additional e-infrastructures, integrating more blue analytical services, configuring more Virtual Labs, and targeting broader (groups of) users. Blue-Cloud 2026 main KERs: A) FAIR compliant DD&AS; B) Open Science VRE federating multiple e-Infrastructures; C) 3 EOV WorkBenches; D) 5 Virtual Labs; E) Blue Strategic Roadmap; F) DTO Task Force. Blue-Cloud 2026 is co-ordinated by the same organisations Trust-IT & MARIS, counting on the same core team of partners CNR, Ifremer, MOI, Seascape Belgium, VLIZ; overall it mobilises a solid, multidisciplinary, & committed team of 40 partners from 13 EU countries.

Earth and environmental sciences require a large panel and volume of data from satellite, in-situ observations, models, omics experiments... Earth system domains are interconnected and even if interfaces between domains appear of primary importance for several studies with large societal impacts, such as climate change, agriculture and food, human safety and health, the present digital architecture is based essentially on distributed and domain-dependent data repositories inducing real difficulties for integrated uses of all the environmental data. To go beyond this state-of-the-art, the overall objective of FAIR-EASE is to customize and operate distributed and integrated services for observation and modelling of the Earth system, environment and biodiversity by improving the TRL of their different components implemented in close cooperation with user-communities, the European Open Science Cloud and research infrastructures in their design and sustainable availability. The project will: (1) Improve a FAIR-EASE data discovery and data access service, relying on pre-operational existing services, in order to provide users with an easy and FAIR tool for discovery and access to environmental multidisciplinary and aggregated data-sets as managed and provided by a range of European data infrastructures; (2) Set up a FAIR-EASE Earth Analytical Lab, with EOSC connectivity supporting, through web-based interfaces, predefined processing tools and on-demand data visualization services for remote analysis and processing of heterogeneous data facilitating the cross-disciplinary collaboration, reducing the time to results and increasing productivity; and (3) Develop a number of multidisciplinary Use Cases (UCs) to contribute requirements for the FAIR-EASE system components and to validate and demonstrate the capabilities of the FAIR-EASE service for supporting open science.

The ocean is a major component of the global carbon cycle absorbing about a quarter of anthropogenic CO2 emissions every year, modulating the rate of accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere and hence global warming. Increased levels of CO2 in the ocean cause a decline in seawater pH, also known as ocean acidification, with now well-known potential ecological consequences. Sustained, long-term in situ observations are, therefore, crucial to better understand and predict the impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems, increase resilience and develop sound mitigation and adaptation strategies. Furthermore, long-term sustained in situ ocean observations are required to support environmental and climate policies, such as the European Green Deal, and related policies aiming to reach net zero carbon and achieve a sustainable blue economy. To meet this challenge, GEORGE will advance the global technological competitiveness of European ocean observing research infrastructures (EMSO, ICOS, Euro-Argo) through the development and demonstration of a state-of-the-art biogeochemical, multi-platform observing system for characterisation of the ocean carbon system. GEORGE will advance the technology readiness level of novel sensors enabling for the first time systematic autonomous, in situ seawater CO2 system characterisation, and CO2 fluxes on moving and fixed platforms. These sensors will be integrated on state-of-the-art platforms augmented with the latest in autonomous technology enabling new observing capability. Technologies, methods and SOPs for carbon observing will be harmonised across a framework for multi-platform, cross-ERIC ocean observing, from sensor to data repositories. GEORGE will build capacity in ERICs through the provision of training in the use of new technologies and SOPs on data handling and reporting to staff and member organisations. Technology will be co-developed between industry and ERICs ensuring direct route to market and potential for scalability.