EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean

EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean logo

The EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean is a federated digital environment designed to empower scientists, support the EU Mission "Restore our Ocean and Waters," and provide the research foundation for the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO).

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A centralised platform where researchers can access a wide range of FAIR capabilities, products and services specific to the marine domain

 

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Our Journey: From Blue-Cloud to an EOSC Node

 

Our story begins with a major challenge: Europe's vast ocean data was scattered across different services, making collaborative, data-intensive research difficult.

To address this challenge this, between 2019 and 2026 the Blue-Cloud project brought together leading European ocean and marine data and knowledge services, such as those provided by EMODnet and Copernicus Marine, leading aquatic Blue Data Infrastructures (BDIs), Research Infrastructures such as e.g. SeaDataNet, EurOBIS, Euro-Argo, ELIXIR-ENA, EMBRC-ERIC, and other major e-infrastructures, namely D4Science, EUDAT, and EGI, to deliver a Virtual Research Environment (VRE), facilitating collaborative research, offering computing, storage, analytical and generic services, orchestrated with a large variety of data resources for constructing, hosting and operating analytical workflows for specific applications. 

In parallel, in 2022 the EU initiated the development of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO). This initiative led to a range of DTO research projects and established EDITO as the core open public infrastructure, conceived to facilitate the development of digital twin applications.

In the meantime, in 2023 a vision for an EOSC Federation was defined, as a “system of systems” where multiple EOSC Nodes are interconnected and can collaborate to share and manage scientific data, knowledge, and resources within and across thematic and geographical research communities. The EOSC Nodes are conceived as entry points for users to the EOSC Federation, with each node offering its own and possibly third-party services, including data reposing and accessing services. 

Blue-Cloud de-facto piloted a marine thematic node within the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) for quality marine science in support of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean programme and its implementing facilities.

Following the success of this pilot phase, this proven infrastructure and community have evolved. We are now officially recognized as the EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean, a core component of the EOSC Federation dedicated to supporting the marine and water research communities.

OUR MISSION

The objective of the EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean is to consolidate a marine thematic node in EOSC, establishing the technical and governance conditions that will guide the transition towards becoming a core component of the EDITO core infrastructure platform of the European Digital Twin Ocean.

The EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean is championing a vision where major EU marine knowledge assets (i.e. EMODnet, Copernicus Marine, EDITO), environmental and marine Research Infrastructures (from ESFRI and beyond) are central and will be combined to establish an EOSC Node that will drive marine data provision and open science developments in EOSC. 

 

EOSC Node Digital Twin of the Ocean - Node services overview
EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean architecture 

 

Powering Collaborative Science

 

As an EOSC Node, we provide a seamless ecosystem for:

  • Researchers, who can access harmonised, multidisciplinary datasets to support cross-domain analyses.
  • Data providers, who can expose their resources to new audiences and align with European FAIR data standards.
  • Students and educators, who can explore curated datasets and visualisations to support ocean literacy and training activities:

Our key role is to serve as a research and innovation hub that connects directly to EDITO, the public infrastructure of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean.

The EOSC Node | Digital Twin of the Ocean offers:

  • A Unified Gateway: One-stop access to a vast and diverse range of marine data and services.
  • An Interoperable VRE: A powerful online workspace where data from EDITO, EMODnet, Copernicus Marine, and other sources can be analyzed with cutting-edge tools.
  • A Collaborative Environment: A platform where scientists can develop, share, and reuse analytical workflows, accelerating the pace of discovery.

The integration between our VRE and the EDITO catalogue, currently under discussion, will facilitate mutual access, creating a powerful, unified digital ecosystem for all European researchers. By connecting ocean research to the broader EOSC, we are helping to build a true "system of systems" for European science.