<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Title</td>
<td>Author(s)</td>
<td>Year of Publication</td>
<td>Journal Title</td>
<td>Issue Number</td>
<td>Page Number(s)</td>
<td>DOI</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Exploring multiple stressor effects with Ecopath, Ecosim, and Ecospace: Research designs, modeling techniques, and future directions</td>
<td>A. Stock, C.C. Murray, E.J Gregr, J. Steenbeek, E. Woodburn, F. Micheli, V. Christensen, K.M.A. Chan</td>
<td>2023</td>
<td>Science of The Total Environment</td>
<td>Volume 869</td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969723003340" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Global-scale parameters for ecological models</td>
<td>Gianpaolo Coro, Pasquale Bove, Kathleen Kesner-Reyes</td>
<td>2023</td>
<td>Scientific Data</td>
<td>Volume 10, issue 7</td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-022-01904-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Scientific progress made towards bridging the knowledge gap in the biology of Mediterranean marine fishes</td>
<td>Eva Daskalaki ,Evangelos Koufalis,Donna Dimarchopoulou,Athanassios C. Tsikliras</td>
<td>2022</td>
<td>PLOS ONE</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/comments?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0277383" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ecosystem-based fisheries management increases catch and carbon sequestration through recovery of exploited stocks: The western Baltic Sea case study</td>
<td>Marco Scotti, Silvia Opitz, Liam MacNeil, Axel Kreutle, Christian Pusch and Rainer Froese</td>
<td>2022</td>
<td>Frontiers in Marine Science</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.879998/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The potential effects of COVID-19 lockdown and the following restrictions on the status of eight target stocks in the Adriatic Sea</td>
<td>Giuseppe Scarcella, Silvia Angelini, Enrico Nicola Armelloni, Ilaria Costantini, Andrea De Felice, Stefano Guicciardi, Iole Leonori, Francesco Masnadi, Martina Scanu, and Gianpaolo Coro</td>
<td>2022</td>
<td>Frontiers in Marine Science</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.920974/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Filling Gaps in Trawl Surveys at Sea through Spatiotemporal and Environmental Modelling</td>
<td>Gianpaolo Coro, Pasquale Bove, Enrico Nicola Armelloni, Francesco Masnadi, Martina Scanu, and Giuseppe Scarcella</td>
<td>2022</td>
<td>Frontiers in Marine Science</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.919339/full" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Modelling and assessing the ecosystem of the Aegean Sea, a major hub of the eastern Mediterranean at the intersection of Europe and Asia</td>
<td>Ioannis Keramidasa, Donna Dimarchopouloub, Athanassios C. Tsiklirasa</td>
<td>2022</td>
<td>ScienceDirect</td>
<td>Volume 56</td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352485522002997" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ecocentric Fisheries Management in European Seas (Part I): Data Gaps, Base Models and Initial Assessments</td>
<td>Athanassios C. Tsikliras, Georgi M. Daskalov, Georgios Sylaios, Gianpaolo Coro, Marco Scotti, David Grémillet et al.</td>
<td></td>
<td>Frontiers in Marine Science</td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td><a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/31565/ecocentric-fisheries-management-in-european-seas-part-i-data-gaps-base-models-and-initial-assessment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">View DOI/report</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Read scientific publications on fisheries research generated by members of the EcoScope project consortium group.

Scientific publications - Fisheries research

<h1>Expected impact</h1>

The EcoScope project will have both a direct impact, during and shortly after the project period, as well as an indirect impact on science and society in general, even beyond the end of the project.
The direct impact of EcoScope will be enabled through the:

(1) New scientific knowledge generated using the latest available tools and methods for fisheries management in the full ecosystem context, ecological modelling and maritime spatial planning, especially in data-poor areas.

(2) Development of ecosystem models and assessments as well as testing of fisheries management scenarios and plans within the context of climate change and other anthropogenically induced environmental impacts.

(3) Development of an interoperable platform, the EcoScope Platform, which will host and merge all oceanographic, biogeochemical, environmental and climate drivers, ecosystem models as well as fisheries and ecosystem assessment tools and indicators into the interoperable EcoScopium public portal.

(4) Creation of a robust EcoScope Toolbox: a scoring tool for management and policy, which will incorporate
environmental, ecological, fisheries and economic metrics along with uncertainty for decision makers and end-users.

(5) Development and integration of a fisheries component into the Maritime Spatial Planning simulation platform that will enable users and managers to observe the direct and future effects of multiple drivers on marine ecosystems.

(6) Development of tools for conducting simulations under deep uncertainty to support Robust Decision Making.

(7) Direct involvement of related stakeholders in co-designing the toolbox and evaluating its performance.

(8) Involvement of the general public in reporting bad practices through social media/smartphones (EcoScope App).

(9) Continuous training and capacity building using the latest educational technological advances (EcoScope Academy).

(10) Innovative services that will be planned by industrial partners through business planning and, with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, will make use of the enormous capabilities of the platform, the toolbox, the simulator, the application and the academy and will be targeted at a wide range of stakeholders and general users. The EcoScope Toolbox and EcoScope Platform as well as the related research and innovation will create benefits for research and academic partners, business opportunities for industrial partners, potential for Blue Growth, income increase for the fishers through rebuilding fish stock biomass and a series of instruments co-designed by and for policy makers. These products and associated services will be available online in the EcoScopium public portal immediately after their development thereby directly benefiting scientists outside the consortium, fisheries managers and policy makers. The direct online availability of the products and the detailed methodology for their replication in other case studies/areas of the world will maximise current and future knowledge transfer beyond the framework of the project. It will provide access to tools and indicators developed in EcoScope to the scientific community, stakeholders and endusers beyond the EU but also globally through scientific collaborations and publications. The indirect impact of EcoScope will be amplified with a business model that will be developed in order to ensure the operation of the EcoScope Toolbox, the EcoScope Platform, the EcoScope Academy and the EcoScope App along with other products and services developed in business planning after the funded phase of the project. The applicability of these products and services in other areas of the world and other case studies within the EU will be strengthened by the numerous scientific publications in journals and conference proceedings that will be produced by members of the consortium. The consortium members and especially the communication team will make sure that the scientific output, including the reports and other deliverables, is useful, clear and accessible to stakeholders and properly communicated to the non-expert scientific audience and to the public through popular articles free of scientific jargon, and including infographics.


The main social impact from the rebuilding of stocks and sustainable fisheries through the ecosystem-based
fisheries management will be an increase in income and jobs in the fishing industry and the blue economy in European Seas. Unsustainable fishing and stock biomass declines are presently uneconomic and eat into their profitability, as European fisheries are largely relying on subsidies. Increasing innovation will foster competition and open the market for SMEs to provide services and products based on datasets that will now be accessible and interoperable and will create high value-jobs. Reduced uncertainty in knowledge of marine ecosystems, and the possible effects of future conditions, will reduce the risk for policy makers. The extensive assessment of vulnerable megafauna and of noncommercial fish and invertebrate stocks will provide NGOs with valuable information on the conservation status of vulnerable/protected species and non-commercial stocks. Another social benefit of EcoScope, through its strong and continuous stakeholder involvement in co-designing management tools within the Knowledge Exchange Forum, will be the increased potential for local coastal communities to make a real contribution on issues that affect their neighbourhood or their livelihood. They will engage with public authorities and scientific expert knowledge in an informed discussion on options for use/preservation of marine ecosystems, trade-offs between economy and ecology, and engage in issues such as stock assessment, habitat degradation, climate change, environmental and anthropogenic impact on marine ecosystems, fisheries and local/national/European economies. 

The “ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems” will serve the requirements and targets of the Common Fisheries Policy and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, will protect species, Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems and Biodiversity and will provide the means to “regulate uses of the marine environment” according to the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive. The EcoScope scientific output, products and services will be used to promote the sustainable exploitation of marine resources, halt habitat degradation, improve knowledge on fisheries and marine ecosystems, protect vulnerable species and biodiversity, detect and fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) catch and foster better fisheries management and governance. The aim will be to improve the status of marine populations, preserve food web structure and habitats and increase the stock biomass in the sea, thereby increasing the income of fishers without jeopardizing ecosystem health and services. All management scenarios that will be examined and the projections of all the tools/methods that will be examined, will be tested against IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) climate change scenarios and will include alternative options and uncertainty to promote adaptive management to climate change. This approach will be valuable for policy makers not only for the management of the resources, habitats and ecosystems but also for the well-being and adaptation of the fisheries and the health and safety of the fishers themselves. EcoScope will engage a multi-actor approach to inform the main target groups of the project that are policy makers (DG MARE, DG ENVIRONMENT, DG RTD, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations) and scientific advisory bodies (FAO, GFCM, ICES), as well as research and academic institutions, NGOs and commercial/recreational fishers. The expected impact of EcoScope is given in detail below through the project’s activities and output and the value for stakeholders/end-users.

EcoScope Impact: the sustainable ecosystem-based fisheries management will increase income and jobs in the fishing industry and blue economy in European Seas.

H2020 Project EcoScope: impact on science and society

EU funded H2020 Project EcoScope: Impact

Impact

<h1> The EcoScope Platform </h1>

The EcoScope Platform will be a novel, modular, interdisciplinary e-tool integrating met-ocean, biogeochemical, environmental, biological, fisheries, and socio-economic datasets, covering all European Seas. The e-platform will provide both primary data and on-demand derived data services including forecasts, through a single public portal to various end-user groups, stakeholders, and the broader public. Through the EcoScope Platform, complex ecosystem functions and interrelations between abiotic-biotic-human components will be revealed and their spatio-temporal variability will be assessed and visualized. Data on oceanography, marine biogeochemistry, food webs, and ecosystem productivity within the framework of climate change and increased anthropogenic forcing will be aggregated.

Data will be collected and homogenized in terms of data types and formats according to international standards (where these exist, e.g., WMO, SeaDataNet, FishBase) in accordance with fair data principles (FAIR). Data stored temporarily in the modern CLS (participant 22 – CLS) data centre and eventually in a cloud server dedicated for this task but also work with <a href= "https://www.blue-cloud.org/" target=“_blank”>Blue Cloud</a>. 

The EcoScope Platform will:

(a) integrate data from external data providers, like CMEMS (all data products, satellite, model outputs and on-site observations), EMODnet (bathymetry, biology, chemistry, human activities, geology, human activities data portals), GOOS (operational oceanographic data from on-line RT sensors like moorings, Argo-floats, gliders, benthic stations), SMHI (river outflows and nutrient fluxes), CORDEX (data from climate change scenarios), FAO, ICES and Sea Around Us (fishery data as catch time-series per species, biomass assessments and fleet statistics, all per ICES Ecoregions/GFCM subareas), Global Fishing Watch (fishing effort data), AquaMaps (species distributions), ESFRI (marine data from EMSOERIC, Euro-Argo ERIC, LifeWatch ERIC and Daniubius RI), benthic biodiversity (Marine IBA e-atlas), marine mammals (ACCOBAMS) and more, and


(b) assimilate data, model results and indicators produced within the framework of the EcoScope project, in relation to environmental, human (WP4) and economic (WP7) drivers, indicators and assessments (WP5) and ecological models (WP6). For example, the EcoScope Platform will integrate the expected impacts of climate change scenarios on sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), primary production, ice cover, etc. as produced by WP4 (Task 4.1); the biodiversity indicators and stock assessments from WP5 (Tasks 5.1, 5.2); the ecosystem modelling data and deep uncertainty simulation results from WP6 (Tasks 6.1, 6.2) and economic indicator data from WP7 (Task 7.2).


The EcoScope Platform will follow the architectural design and principles developed in the ODYSSEA H2020 Project (Mediterranean Sea platform) and therefore it will be composed of the following modules:

Storage component storing and organizing data into topics like meteorology, bathymetry, hydrology, hydrography, geology, physics, chemistry, biology, biodiversity, human impacts, etc. These data will be further classified into: 

(a) Static/archived datasets, collected once or at long irregular intervals, such as bathymetry, geology, biodiversity, habitats, etc.

(b) Dynamic historical data, in mean-monthly time-series form. Assessed forecasts, such as climate change data per scenario. Operational, short-term forecasts will not be included in the databases of EcoScope, as these will not directly affect fisheries and socio-economic model outputs or indicators.

1. Catalogue component, as a pre-processing step prior to data injection into the system. This component ensures data harmonisation and standardisation, linking data to external platforms through an OGC Catalogue Service of the Web interface and metadata organisation, following the standards ISO/TC2112, ISO19115 and ISO 19139 for georeferenced metadata.

2. User Management component, allowing the registration and authentication of end-users to the EcoScope Platform, according to the provisions of GDPR on users’ personal data protection and privacy requirements (95/46/EC).

3. Analysis and Reporting Component, supporting the data processing and manipulation (e.g., interpolation, filtering, fitting, signal processing, aggregation), statistical analysis toolbox (descriptive statistics, distributions, etc.) and reports to display in the web portal (e.g. plotting and mapping services).

4. Dissemination Component, allowing the user to visualise maps and time-series and extract them in various forms.

EcoScope Platform: novel, modular, interdisciplinary e-tool integrating met-ocean, biogeochemical, environmental, biological, fisheries, socio-economic datasets

E-Platform: primary data and on-demand derived services

H2020 EcoScope Platform

EcoScope Outputs

EcoScope Platform

EcoScope Toolbox

EcoScope Academy

EcoScope App

Project title: Ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems

Acronym: EcoScope

Number: 101000302

Budget: €7,919,413.75

Project Duration: 48 Months

Partners: 24 Partners 

Coordinator: AUTH, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, (Athanassios Tsikliras & Sophie Manousi)

Project Overview

<h1>Consortium as a whole</h1>

The consortium consists of 24 partners representing academia, research, NGO and SMEs with an extended geographical coverage across Europe that encompasses all European marine ecosystems included in the proposal. The expertise of the participants is wide and directly related to the topic of the programme safeguarding the successful accomplishment of projects objectives that will set the foundations and promote ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems. Members of the Consortium have developed a Mediterranean Sea platform with meteorological, oceanographic and environmental data (CLS, Hidromod, BLIT), oceanographic and biogeochemical models (DUTH), new methods and tools for assessing the stock status of non-commercial and datapoor commercial fish and invertebrate species (CMSY+, LBB, AMSY: GEOMAR, AUTH, CNR, UBC), socio-economic indicators (UM, NIVA), ecological niche models for predicting rare species distributions under climate scenarios (CNR, CEBC, IBER), community, biodiversity (IEO, IBER) and ecological indicators (IBER, CEBC, EVILVO, AUTH, EII); they have developed (EII) and set up ecosystem models in all case study areas and elsewhere (AUTH, IBER, IOLR, IEO, GEOMAR, EVILVO, BLIT), developed Information Technology (IT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure to run simulations under deep uncertainty (PEAS, BUAS), as well as online courses (LWCY, AUTH) and are highly experienced in marine policy, stakeholder involvement and networking (EMB, SPNI, Thalassa) but also in business planning and innovation (Agora, CLS, BLIT). Two international partners (UBC and QQ) have created unique global databases of fisheries catch and effort data (Sea Around Us: UBC) and species distribution maps (AquaMaps: QQ) that contain essential information for any ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. The expertise of the Consortium on stock assessments, fisheries management, marine ecosystems, ecosystem modelling, oceanographic models, marine policy and spatial planning is exceptional and the overall publication record is really outstanding at a global scale.

Platform development and climatic, oceanographic and biogeochemical data collection and modelling: DUTH will provide its oceanographic and biogeochemical expertise and experience in sea numerical modelling, marine technologies, operational systems, forecasting risks and emergencies, remote data collection. CLS is a global provider of operations of satellite systems for positioning, data collection, ocean observation and surveillance and it has been developing added-value applications and satellite-based services for more than 30 years. Hidromod has proven experience in developing and implementing operational systems and it will contribute to the design of the platform, services and ocean modelling activities. 


Global datasets of fisheries and biological data: Some of the most important global datasets on fisheries and ecosystems, that are of fundamental importance for fisheries management in the full ecosystem context and maritime spatial planning, have been developed by EcoScope partners. The distribution of all species based on their thermal and other requirements (AquaMaps) has been developed by GEOMAR and QQ and spatial resolution improved using novel methods and tools by DUTH and CNR. The global catch reconstruction (including landings, discards, recreational catch and illegal, unreported and unregulated catch but also effort and economics data) in time and space is a unique and extremely valuable dataset (Sea Around Us Database) that has been developed by UBC, while CNR has acquired georeferenced vessel trajectories per fleet since 2010 (AIS data). Global Fishing Watch data, which also contains highresolution geo-referenced vessel trajectories at a global scale, has already been provided to the EcoScope Project. 


ToolBox development, fisheries and ecosystem assessments: Several partners of EcoScope have led (GEOMAR, UBC) or been involved (AUTH, CNR) in the development of a series of fisheries stock assessment methods that have been used globally, especially in data-poor areas. Other partners have developed biodiversity indicators (IBER, IEO) that have been used in ecosystem assessments or novel methods that incorporate artificial intelligence for determining climate effects on species distributions, biodiversity and fisheries as well as alien species potential invasiveness (CEBC, EVILVO) and for determining the anthropogenic effects on biodiversity, resources and marine ecosystems and habitats (CNR). 


Algorithms and application software for ecological modelling and marine spatial planning: EII is focused on the contribution to the sustainability of living resources and ecosystems through the development, implementation, education and promotion of analytical tools and ecological modelling, with special emphasis on the use of the modelling approach Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE). PEAS investigates, develops or customizes methods and algorithms for information fusion, decision making processing, uncertainty and deep uncertainty in robust decision making and BUAS have become well-versed in the area of Maritime Spatial Planning with a global network of partners and supporters of the MSP Challenge simulation platform community and the development of MSP simulator. DUTH and CNR will use artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop algorithms that will be used as input in ecosystem modelling, whereas IOLR and AUTH have been involved in many EwE models examining various management and environmental/climatic scenarios. 


Socio-economic effects and perception: NIVA and UBC will provide their experience in environmental and fisheries economics with stated preference methods to value non-market goods and services and develop bioeconomic models to inform sustainable natural resource management and risk assessment of human activities on ecosystem services, while UM, expert on societal perceptions will work on expectations and preferences in diverse communities, and to assess the economic and governance implications of ecosystem-based fisheries management in Europe.

International policy makers and policy experts: The European Marine Board (EMB) is a leader in marine science-policy foresight activities in Europe with publications that impact the future marine and maritime research landscape in Europe. The two NGOs, Thalassa and SPNI, are experienced in stakeholder involvement and networking in maritime, marine ecosystems and fisheries issues, including direct and indirect anthropogenic effects.

Capacity building (academy) and communication: LWCY, an edtech start-up, offers a cloud-based, white-label, e-learning management system that provides personally branded, online, interactive, self-paced premium courses. The long experience of UBC, GEOMAR, QQ, EII and AUTH in teaching on marine ecosystems and fisheries across a wide range and multi-level (undergraduate, postgraduate, seminars, summer schools) of international audiences will be the backbone of courses and webinars, while the video material that has been collected from all partners after many years of field research will provide the baseline for online video and infographic material. BLIT will develop user data visualisation for the production of data outputs for end-users in addition to leading the dissemination, communication and visibility efforts.


Marketing and business planning: Agora, CLS and BLIT will provide their business expertise to ensure the sustainability of the outcomes of the project, focusing on continued operation and maintenance of the website (BLIT) and products (CLS), legal and regulatory arrangements for access to additional databases as well as providing legal and regulatory arrangements for the use of data and IPR issues according to the Open Data principle (Agora). The consortium promotes interdisciplinarity as it includes partners focusing on various fields of marine science, fisheries ecology and management ranging from oceanography and biogeochemistry modelling, fisheries biology, stock assessment and management, climate change, ecosystem modelling, biology and ecology of marine organisms, habitat mapping, maritime spatial planning, conservation, biodiversity, socio-economics, human health, statistics, information technology, software design and engineering development of academic courses, networking, marketing and business management and marine policy. The consortium is not only multi- and inter-disciplinary but within each discipline it includes excellent partners with international contribution, broad networking activities, and strong scientific impact.

All partners, at both institutional and individual level, have been previously involved in large-scale, multidisciplinary research projects, including several H2020 projects, requiring big datasets with demanding data analysis and modelling content and have addressed large scale hypotheses in a holistic and integrated ecosystem framework. FishBase (QQ), Sea Around Us (UBC), AquaMaps (GEOMAR, QQ), ODYSSEA (DUTH, CLS and other members), Ecopath with Ecosim (EII) and MSP Challenge simulation platform community (BUAS) are a few examples. Individuals from academic and research partners have been involved in many ICES, STECF, GFCM, FAO and EU working groups and committees, all related to fisheries, effects of climate change on marine organisms and ecosystems and ecosystem modelling. In total, the scientists involved in EcoScope have published an outstanding number of journal articles in the field of the programme, some of them being key papers in fisheries management (Pauly & Zeller 2016; Froese et al. 2018, 2020), status of ecosystems (Pauly et al. 1998, 2000) and ecosystem modelling (Christensen & Walters 2004; Steenbeek et al. 2013; Heymans et al. 2016) and have contributed in setting the foundations for ecosystem based fisheries management at a global scale. Previous cooperation in H2020 projects (e.g., ODYSSEA project) and close scientific collaboration in committees (e.g., GFCM and STECF) and consortia (e.g., FishBase Consortium) denotes that significant experience and interaction already exists among Consortium partners, safeguarding the unobstructed running of EcoScope project, the successful accomplishment of its general and specific objectives, the production of significant scientific output that will be used in the ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems and the smooth development of its four main products and associated services (EcoScope Platform, EcoScope Toolbox, EcoScope Academy and EcoScope Application) that will be hosted in a single public portal, the EcoScopium and could be used globally. Besides the established collaborative networks of high scientific value that will ensure balance and efficiency within the consortium, new synergies are explored with the inclusion of innovative partners from the private sector that will bring new ideas and tools to the project and will link the scientific and policy products with a market value.

EU funded H2020 project EcoScope Consortium as a whole consists of 24 partners representing academia, research, NGO, and SMEs

EcoScope Consortium: including academia, research, NGO, SMEs

EU H2020 EcoScope Consortium as a whole

About Menu

About EcoScope

Project Background

Objectives

Concept

Consortium as a Whole

Ambition and State of the Art

International Advisory Board

Scientific publications

The EcoScope Toolbox will be a novel, decision support tool, which will use an interdisciplinary scoring system integrating oceanographic, climatic, environmental, habitat, biological, community, fisheries, and economic indicators. The intent is for this toolbox to become a universal tool for managing fisheries within the full ecosystem context and a global tool for fisheries management after its validation and testing in all case study areas of the EcoScope project and in all European Seas. The scoring system will be based on a set of metrics that will measure the success of a specific variable with respect to a sustainable target. For example, one (fisheries) metric could be the percentage of stocks sustainably exploited or the conservation status of vulnerable species within a case study (ecosystem, area or country), and the sustainability target will be 100%. A metric will score 100 if its maximum sustainable gains are achieved and the ecosystem’s ability to deliver those gains in the future is not compromised (a range of values will be considered for each level of sustainability, e.g., 80-100%). 

Lower scores will indicate that more gains could be achieved or that current methods are unsustainable and future gains are compromised. Based on this scoring system an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management would target 100% (for sustainable exploitation of marine resources and healthy marine ecosystems. A specific set of metrics that can be applied independently in each case study will be proposed and used within the EcoScope project. However, the peculiarities of each ecosystem/case study and the lack or unavailability of data for some metrics may confine the application to specific metrics in some areas. The EcoScope Toolbox will provide historical data on specific measurable metrics to various end-user groups, stakeholders, and the general public so that they are aware of historical trends as well as forecasts based on recent trends. For the selection of variables, the EcoScope Toolbox will use climate and oceanographic data (WP3), species distribution data, ecological niche modelling and risk and vulnerability assessments (WP4), assessment of stock status and community indicators (WP5), the output of ecological models (WP6) and economic indicators, such as the fisheries profitability index (WP7). The EcoScope Toolbox will be co-design by end users and stakeholders in a co-design meeting (WP8) and will bring together a range of interdisciplinary indicators and consider them simultaneously, with an aim to provide tools for successful implementation and to strengthen ecosystem-based fisheries management.

EcoScope Toolbox: an interdisciplinary scoring system - oceanographic, climatic, environmental, habitat, biological, community, fisheries, economic indicators

EU H2020  EcoScope Toolbox: interdisciplinary scoring system

The EcoScope Toolbox: an interdisciplinary scoring system

<h1>Background</h1>

Fisheries exploitation has historically been considered as the strongest driver of fish population dynamics, while overfishing is the main cause of fish stock depletion at a global scale (Myers & Worm 2003; Tsikliras et al. 2015; Froese et al. 2018). Existing fisheries management practices (mainly based on single- or multi-species approaches) have been unsuccessful in sustainably exploiting fish stocks, because of weaknesses in management approaches, improper implementation and illegal fishing. Commercial and recreational fishing strongly impact all levels of biological organisation and community structure including organisms, habitats and ecosystems (Jackson et al. 2001) raising a pressing need for a holistic approach to managing fisheries in the context of an ecosystem, i.e. an ecocentric (ecosystem-centered or ecosystem-based) fisheries management. International conventions and agreements, and European, regional and national laws all require that marine exploited populations (stocks) have to be managed in a way that their biomass is large enough to produce maximum sustainable yields (MSY) for fisheries. In particular, the member states of the European Union (EU) agreed to end overfishing by 2020, while the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the EU call for the rebuilding of the biomass of all commercially exploited fish and invertebrate stocks above levels that are capable of producing MSY. The first step to achieve this target was that fishing pressure had to be reduced to levels that would produce MSY by 2015, and this was later revised to 2020. According to the CFP, member states are obliged to adjust the fishing capacity of their fleets to their fishing opportunities, aiming to achieve a stable and enduring balance between them. The CFP also “seeks to apply the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management, and to minimize the effect of fishing on the ecosystem”, while EU and United Nations (UN) policy seeks to protect Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems from destructive extraction activities. At the same time, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) aims for Good Environmental Status of European Seas by 2020, including the requirement that none of the commercial fish and shellfish are subject to overfishing but exhibit good stock status in terms of biomass, as well as age and size distributions indicative of a healthy stock. Concomitantly, the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (MSP) aims to “regulate uses of the marine environment”, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to halt the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, while the Green Deal and Blue Growth Strategy promote sustainable use of marine resources under a changing climate. Putting fisheries management decisions into a whole ecosystem context, therefore, requires a shift from traditional single-species management to a more complex archetype, namely, that of ecosystem-based fisheries management, which encompasses multi-species interactions, environmental forcing, habitat status and human activities. 


Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) encapsulates the movement towards a more cooperative and holistic approach to marine resource management (Leslie & McLeod 2007). Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM) recognises the combined physical, biological, economic, and social trade-offs affecting the fisheries sector, and the need to address these trade-offs when optimising fisheries yields from an ecosystem (Link 2010). In the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries Management (EAFM), ecosystem factors are included in the stock assessment, while the social and political dimensions are not necessarily explicitly addressed (Pitcher et al. 2009). 

The design of inter-active policies that aim to implement the ecosystem approach to fisheries management is
better served through a holistic integrated approach to maintain ecosystem integrity, adopt a precautionary approach to fisheries and other uses of marine/coastal ecosystems with broad stakeholder participation, promote sector integration and safeguard livelihoods (Pikitch et al. 2004). This will require interdisciplinarity among scientists to achieve the best possible knowledge on the ecosystems as well as information on social and economic factors that affect the availability of ecosystem services within an ecosystem, including fishing. A more comprehensive and holistic knowledge base of the ecology of the ecosystem is required to form a reliable basis for fisheries management and policy. Understanding of the biology and ecology of all species is, in some areas, far from complete, and appropriate assessment models and decision-support tools need to be further developed. Filling the gaps in ecological and biological knowledge and assessing human (including consumer and producer) impacts on organisms, habitats and ecosystems are prerequisites for effective ecocentric management. Assessment of the status and trends of fisheries and stocks as well as their habitats, and evaluation of ecosystem health are also needed to implement ecosystem based management of fisheries and to monitor their effectiveness. Stocks that have no commercial interest have generally been overlooked and the conservation status of marine megafauna is unknown in many European areas, especially in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

In addition, knowledge of the oceanographic, biogeochemical, environmental and climate impacts on species,
habitats and ecosystems is required for adjusting current management practices (adaptive management) to achieve fisheries sustainability and ecosystem health, while at the same time maintaining economic viability (Link 2010). We need to know the oceanographic characteristics of marine ecosystems and how these influence populations, food webs, and ecosystem dynamics. Mainstreaming scientific data into management and policy is also a challenging task. Often the data are available, but not accessible to policy makers as a tailored toolbox that fits their needs and capacity and balances their socio-economic preferences within ecological boundaries. An intermediate communication link and methods for accessing data that are more specifically tailored is required. In order to define the best adaptive management and to provide policy makers with tools and data for making robust management decisions, sources of uncertainty such as ecological and biological knowledge gaps and possible future conditions must be accounted for (Link et al. 2012). Tools for conducting simulations under deep uncertainty defined as “the condition in which analysts do not know or the parties to a decision cannot agree upon:

(1) The appropriate models to describe interactions among a system's variables.

(2) The probability distributions to represent uncertainty about key parameters in the models.

(3) How to value the desirability of alternative outcomes: (Lempert et al. 2003) are lacking and the extended use of technological advancements such as machine learning and artificial intelligence in fisheries management is still immature. Externalities to fisheries are often not considered in management because they are difficult to measure or because the tools to do so are not available. Addressing the trade-offs among the wide range of issues involved in ecosystem-based fisheries management, such as ecological principles, legal mandates, climate change and economic interests (Hart & Fay 2020) will hopefully shift towards the perception that ecocentric fisheries management, albeit demanding and challenging, is necessary and feasible option.

EcoScope Background: Ecosystem Based Management (EBM) encapsulates the movement towards a more cooperative and holistic approach to marine resource management

EcoScope: cooperative and holistic marine resource management

H2020 EcoScope: Background

EcoScope Background

![EU flag for strapi 4.png](https://storage.googleapis.com/ecoscopium-cms-content/EU_flag_for_strapi_4_bdfabf9efa/EU_flag_for_strapi_4_bdfabf9efa.png)

Project Title: Ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems

Budget: €7919413,75

Project Duration: 48 Months

Project start date: 1 September 2021

Project end date: 31 August 2025

 Grant Agreement ID: 101000302

 Proposal ID: SEP-210673562

Partners: 24 partners, representing 17 countries.

Coordinator: AUTH, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Athanassios Tsikliras

 Topic: H2020 BG-10-2020

 Type of Action: RIA Research and Innovation

Abstract: The EcoScope project will develop an interoperable platform and a robust decision-making toolbox, available through a single public portal, to promote an efficient, ecosystem-based fisheries management. It will be guided by policy makers and scientific advisory bodies, and address ecosystem degradation and the anthropogenic impact that are causing fisheries to be unsustainably exploited across European Seas. The EcoScope Platform will organise and homogenise climatic, oceanographic, biogeochemical, biological and fisheries datasets for European Seas to a common standard type and format that will be available through interactive mapping layers. The EcoScope Toolbox, a scoring system based on assessments of all ecosystem components, ecosystem and economic models, will operate as a decision-support tool for examining fisheries management and marine policy scenarios and spatial planning simulations. Groups of end-users and stakeholders will be involved in the design, development and operation of both the platform and the toolbox. Novel assessment methods for datapoor fisheries, including non-commercial species, as well as for biodiversity and the conservation status of protected megafauna, will be used to assess the status of all ecosystem components across European Seas and test new technologies for evaluating the environmental, anthropogenic and climatic impact on ecosystems and fisheries. 


A series of sophisticated capacity building tools (online courses, webinars and games) will be available to stakeholders through the EcoScope Academy. The EcoScope project will provide an effective toolbox to decision makers and end-users that will be adaptive to their capacity, needs and data availability. The toolbox will incorporate methods for dealing with uncertainty; thus, it will promote efficient, holistic, sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management that will aid towards restoring fisheries sustainability and ensuring balance between food security and healthy seas.

General Project Information for EU funded H2020 project EcoScope: Ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems

EU H2020 EcoScope Project: General Project Information

General Project Information

The EcoScope App will be a smartphone application which will enable citizens to report on marine hazards, illegal fishing practices, removal or stranding of protected species, marine litter, pollution and any malpractice and environmental hazard they come across. The report will be transferred online to local management authorities or the relevant port police, with GPS location, pictures and details depending on the incident. This community-based tool will enhance public involvement the cooperation of local communities with authorities and will provide important information (citizen science) for the EcoScope project, fisheries managers and marine policy in general.

EcoScope app: reporting of marine hazards, illegal fishing, removal/stranding protected species, marine litter, pollution, malpractice, environmental hazard

EcoScope App: enabling citizens to report marine hazards

EU funded H2020 project EcoScope: App

<h1>Concept</h1>


The foundation of the EcoScope project is the use of existing datasets, databases, platforms and maps and the output of projects already funded by the EC and international organisations, their homogenisation into a single interface (a platform) and the development of a set of management tools (a toolbox), both of which will be available in a single public portal. The aim is to fully and holistically assess the marine ecosystems of Europe and the effect of fisheries and climate change on them. Within EcoScope, the ecosystems and fisheries of the European Seas will be assessed and modelled using novel methods and interdisciplinary approaches. Online courses and webinars will be created (an academy) along with a maritime spatial planning simulator using advanced game technology to train users and stakeholders, who will all be involved in co-designing and evaluating the tools (a stakeholder forum). The concept behind EcoScope is to develop the EcoScope Platform where all ecosystem information (meteorological and climatic models, ocean and biogeochemical models, biological and fisheries datasets, ecological models, maritime spatial planning simulations, serious gaming) will be collected and homogenised into a single format and the EcoScope Toolbox that will operate as a decision-support tool by using a scoring system based on assessments of all ecosystem components and their drivers (habitats, species distributions, fishing and environmental forcing, climate change, fisheries reference points, conservation status of protected species, output of ecological models, social perceptions and economic indicators). The toolbox will be highlighted in the EcoScope Academy, with a series of online courses, webinars and games to build capacity among stakeholders, and the EcoScope App, a mobile phone application for enhancing the engagement of the public (citizen science) in fisheries management within the ecosystem context. A Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum will be established to promote and enable the involvement of related stakeholders and end-users in co-designing fisheries management tools and evaluating their application in policymaking through specific foresight workshops. All products will be available in a single public portal, the EcoScopium.

EcoScope: uses existing datasets, databases, platforms, maps and project outputs in a single interface and toolbox within a single public portal (a platform)

EcoScope Concept: fully assess European marine ecosystems

H2020 EcoScope: Concept 

Concept 

<h1>Advancements beyond the state of the art</h1>

The prime ambition of EcoScope is to address the challenge of sustainably managing fisheries in the full ecosystem context within a changing climate, to balance between food security and healthy seas that are impacted by human activities, and to identify ecosystem constraints that will eliminate potential trade-offs between ecology and economy. Safeguarding ecosystem stability and ensuring well-managed sustainable fisheries and healthy seas will lead not only to improve human welfare but also to economic stability that will support EU policies and directives and promote Blue Growth. The management of fisheries in regions with varying cultural, economic, political as well as social ethics and different levels of law enforcement requires creating a common basis through the harmonisation of datasets, indicators and models while at the same time recognising the particularities of ecosystems and the idiosyncrasies of people. At the same time, because of these particularities, it requires tailor made management and policies adjusted to the current status of marine ecosystems, needs of local policy makers and the variable data availability. Therefore, another ambition of EcoScope is to bridge the gaps among disciplines, geographical areas, datasets and people through the development of the EcoScope Platform. EcoScope project will combine theoretical knowledge with modelling and empirical analysis to inform policy makers on fisheries management within the ecosystem context, including biological diversity, non-indigenous species, fisheries and environmental forcing, including climate change. Finally, EcoScope’s ambition is to use the existing datasets, tools and methods for ecosystem assessment (classical stock assessments, trawl and acoustic survey data) with the novel methods for data-poor fisheries and to expand the toolbox of options within the technology continuum to include artificial intelligence and machine learning in ecosystem management, through the development of the EcoScope Toolbox. 


EcoScope’s ambition is for the EcoScope Toolbox to become a universal scoring system that can be applied in other areas of Europe and the world. In particular, we aim to widely disseminate the toolbox, data poor methods for stock and ecosystem assessments, and sources of data that might not be directly available to developing nation scientists and policy makers. EcoScope aims to ensure in-depth advancements beyond the state of the art across all WPs. Interdisciplinary linking and thinking, gathering of all available knowledge and information and harmonisation of data into a single userfriendly platform (WP3) across European Sea are beyond the state of the art (partly expanding on H2020 ODYSSEA project for the Mediterranean Sea). Assessing the risk of non-indigenous species population expansion to local species, habitats and fisheries is particularly important within the framework of climate change and constitutes a novelty because of its predictive ability through scenario testing (WP4). 

The development of novel tools for assessing the state of non-commercial, ecosystem-service species is an advancement as this component has been overlooked in traditional fisheries management approaches, and the application of existing tools to ecosystem level is particularly ambitious, especially in data poor fisheries where local ecological knowledge is valuable and its incorporation in models is rare (WP5). Merging the tools and information of all WPs into a single decision-making toolbox that will facilitate management and policy making at local, national and European level is also beyond the state of the art (WP5). The modelling approaches including the assessment of uncertainty and inclusion of deep uncertainty in complex ecosystem models to achieve robust decision making across many models, using meta-modelling and systems modelling, are all beyond the state of the art when fisheries management scenarios are examined, and various theories are tested (WP6). The combination of ecosystem models with the inclusion of a fisheries component to the maritime spatial planning simulation platform will be fundamental for making advanced scientific knowledge understandable to the decision makers using practical examples, maps, digital games and dashboards (WP6). The EcoScope project will involve big data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer sciences, meta-modelling, simulation sciences, robust decision making, uncertainty and deep uncertainty and advanced game-technology (novelty in terms of software engineering and multi-disciplinarity). The socioeconomic analyses establishes a link between ecology and economy and allows an assessment of societal (gender, diversity, human health) needs and values as well as the identification of boundaries and indicators to guide policies and decision support (WP7). Although identifying stakeholders that are not directly related and involving them in the process of running a project is challenging, it will promote interdisciplinarity and potentially give birth to new ideas and concepts, thereby increasing their involvement in co-designing management tools (WP8). Capacity building will be maximised through online courses and webinars for training (EcoScope Academy) as well as via the communication of results to the general public in a short documentary film. Innovation management, updating the results and maintaining the operation of the platform and toolbox after the end of the project is ambitious but for the consortium it is a prerequisite that ensures the viability of EcoScope products and services and allows its future use in other projects and research activities as well as by the industry and decision makers (WP9). Transfer of knowledge and dissemination of the project results across multi audiences with varying cultural, economic, political and social backgrounds is a challenge and our ambition is that it will be aided by
the technological advancements of smartphones and the development of an application (EcoScope App), as well as by the expansion of social media across society (WP10). 


Innovation potential, new knowledge and novelties
The new knowledge that will be produced, a series of novelties that will increase the scientific, societal and economic impact of EcoScope and the innovative actions for the ecocentric fisheries management are listed below:

New and integrated knowledge
- Development of the EcoScope Platform that will homogenise all oceanographic, biological and fisheries datasets.
- Implementation of Marine Ecosystem Assessment across case studies.
- Assessment of the impact of fishing on habitats using novel diversity (N90) and sensitivity (BESITO) indices.
- Assessment of the impact of fishing on species/ecosystems using novel tools (e.g., AMSY) and indicators (e.g., SAR).
- Application of a novel Red List assessment method (JARA) to assess conservation status of vulnerable species

Novelties that will increase scientific impact
- Development of ecological niche models (ENM) and machine learning techniques for predicting species distributions in a changing climate, including distributions of non-commercial and non-indigenous species.
- Application of hierarchical ecosystem approach in the evaluation of ecosystem effects on fish stocks.
- Vulnerability and risk assessment of ecosystem components and fisheries to climate change.
- Development of systems models to simulate the effect of uncertainty in complex systems and interlinked models.
- Development of model simulations to visualise the effects of scenarios and policies under deep uncertainty, and identify the root causes of desirable as well as undesirable evolutions.
- Integration of deep uncertainty into fisheries management and marine ecosystem modelling.
- Application of Robust Decision Making approach in the assessment of fisheries management in an ecosystem context under uncertain future conditions

Novelties that will increase societal and economic impact
- Development of the EcoScope Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum: an interactive mechanism with related stakeholders and end-users throughout the project that will co-design tools and services.
- Development of an EcoScope Academy: a series of online courses, webinars and digital games to support the proper use of decision making tools and to promote ecosystem-based fisheries management.
- Development of games, online simulators, integrated dashboards, narratives, a documentary film and art & science exhibitions for disseminating the results to the stakeholders and the general public.
- Use of advanced game technology (Unity game engine) and game design thinking to create optimal usability of platform and toolbox, as well as for highly interactive sessions with stakeholders and interactive learning.
- Development of an EcoScope App, that will be used for collecting local information/knowledge from fishers and citizens in general and to inform the related stakeholders.
- Provision of scientific single species management advice weighted with climate and environmental forcing.


Innovation potential
- Development of a universal EcoScope Toolbox to allow the examination of the effect of fishing, fisheries management policies and climate/environmental impact on all ecosystem components under deep uncertainty
based on “what if?” scenarios.
- Development of a fisheries component in MSP Challenge simulation platform to be applied in all current editions (North Sea, Baltic Sea and Adriatic Sea are among EcoScope’s case studies) and a new edition for the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the data poorest area within EcoScope that combines two case studies (Aegean and Levantine).
- Implementation of novel digital technology to collect valuable data onboard fishing vessels through a cloud-based data hub and visualisation tools based on business analytics service (e.g., Power-BI).

EcoScope's ambition is to advance the sustainability of managing fisheries in the ecosystem context within a changing climate, food security, and healthy seas

EU H2020 EcoScope: ambition and state of the art

EU H2020 funded project EcoScope: Ambition and state of the art

The EcoScope Academy will be the educational pillar of the project and will include a collection of online courses, webinars, hybrid courses, online games and self-paced courses addressed to postgraduate and undergraduate students, young scientists and policy-makers. The knowledge created in the EcoScope Toolbox and EcoScope Platform, as well as the scientific output of the EcoScope project will be shared through capacity building in the EcoScope Academy, which will promote cross community education and knowledge sharing. It will in the first instance be based on the material of the courses currently run by EcoScope partners, but will also create new material based on the outputs from the Ecoscope project. 

The current courses include: the Fisheries Biology and Ecosystem Management postgraduate course of AUTH, the Advanced Stock Assessment seminar courses delivered by AUTH, GEOMAR and UBC <a href="http://fishlab.bio.auth.gr/FishBior/" target=“_blank”>http://fishlab.bio.auth.gr/FishBior/</a>, the summer school in Oceanography and Fisheries run by DUTH, the stock assessment courses run by QQ (<a href="https://www.q-quatics.org/cmsybsm-workshop-india/" target=“_blank”>https://www.q-quatics.org/cmsybsm-workshop-india/</a>), and the ecological modelling training courses of the EII ( <a href="http://ecopath.org/seminars/" target=“_blank”>http://ecopath.org/seminars/</a>). These courses will be put together in a syllabus used for both traditional courses and life-long learning. Scientific results from journals, ecological models, videos/photos and presentations will also be used to enrich the course content and promote interdisciplinarity. The EcoScope Academy will be used for disseminating the methodological approach of EcoScope to all related stakeholders and for supporting the proper usage of the developed platform and decision-making toolbox.

EcoScope Academy: online courses, webinars, hybrid courses, online games, self-paced courses for undergrad/postgrad students, young scientists and policy-makers

EcoScope Academy: cross community education and knowledge

EcoScope Academy: the educational pillar of the project

EcoScope Academy 

<table>
 <tr>
 <th>Deliverable Number</th>
 <th>Deliverable Title</th>
 <th>WP Number</th>
<th>Lead Beneficiary</th>
<th>Type</th>
<th>Dissemination Level</th>
<th>Due Date (in months)</th>
<th>Files</th>

 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>D1.1</td>
 <td>Minutes of kick-off meeting, project executive board and first annual general assembly meeting</td>
 <td>WP1</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>4</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td>D1.2</td>
 <td>Data management plan</td>
 <td>WP1</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>ORDP: Open Research Data Pilot</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>6 </td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D1.3</td>
 <td>Minutes of Second Annual Assembly meeting</td>
 <td>WP1</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>15</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D1.4</td>
 <td>Minutes of Third Annual Assembly meeting</td>
 <td>WP1</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>27</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D1.5</td>
 <td>Minutes of Fourth Annual Assembly meeting</td>
 <td>WP1</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>40</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D2.1</td>
 <td>Review of gaps and short-term data needs</td>
 <td>WP2</td>
<td>IBER-BAS</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>8</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D2.2</td>
 <td>Review of ecosystem based fisheries assessment and management advice practices in Europe</td>
 <td>WP2</td>
<td>IBER-BAS</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>11</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D2.3</td>
 <td>Report on short term data collection</td>
 <td>WP2</td>
<td>IBER-BAS</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>32</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D2.4</td>
 <td>Concept and strategy for data collection and research methodology for ecosystem based fisheries management </td>
 <td>WP2</td>
<td>IBER-BAS</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>42</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D3.1</td>
 <td>Report on EcoScope Platform database development</td>
 <td>WP3</td>
<td>DUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D3.2</td>
 <td>Report on Quality </td>
 <td>WP3</td>
<td>DUTH
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>18</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D3.3</td>
 <td>EcoScope Platform Progress Report</td>
 <td>WP3</td>
<td>DUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>24</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D3.4</td>
 <td>EcoScope Platform Final Report</td>
 <td>WP3</td>
<td>DUTH</td>
<td>Other</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>36 </td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D3.5</td>
 <td>Report on data processing and fusion</td>
 <td>WP3</td>
<td>DUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>40</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D4.1</td>
 <td>Report on climatic parameters collections</td>
 <td>WP4</td>
<td>CNR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>20</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D4.2</td>
 <td>Report on vessel transmitted information analysis</td>
 <td>WP4</td>
<td>CNR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>26</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D4.3</td>
 <td>Report on ecological niche modelling</td>
 <td>WP4</td>
<td>CNR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>38</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D4.4</td>
 <td>Vulnerability and risk assessment Index report</td>
 <td>WP4</td>
<td>CNR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D5.1</td>
 <td>Report on fish and invertebrate assessment</td>
 <td>WP5</td>
<td>CNR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>24</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D5.2</td>
<td>Report on marine communities evaluation</td>
 <td>WP5</td>
 <td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>26</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D5.3</td>
<td>Report on habitat evaluation, megafauna assessment and energyscapes
 <td>WP5</td>
 <td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>38</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D5.4</td>
 <td>Report on ecosystem fisheries exploitation indices</td>
 <td>WP5</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>42</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D5.5</td>
 <td>Report on marine ecosystem assessment and EcoScope Toolbox </td>
 <td>WP5</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.1</td>
 <td>Development of MSP challenge simulation platform for Eastern Mediterranean</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Other</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>18</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.2</td>
 <td>Report on EwE models for all case study areas</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>26</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.3</td>
 <td>Development of adapted EwE models</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>other</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>28</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.4</td>
 <td>Report on MSP challenge simulation platform EM with fisheries module</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>30</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.5</td>
 <td>Report on development and implementation of uncertainty and deep uncertainty tools in EwE models</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>36</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.6</td>
 <td>MSP challenge simulation platform EM improved user interaction/dashboards, full ready for testing</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>other</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>36</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.7</td>
 <td>Report on meta-models that correspond to the EwE models</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>40</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.8</td>
 <td>Report on scenario development and testing for all case studies</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D6.9</td>
 <td>Simulation, analysis and report for each case study under deep uncertainty</td>
 <td>WP6</td>
<td>IOLR</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D7.1</td>
 <td>Report on descriptive and quantative analyses from socioeconomic surveys</td>
 <td>WP7</td>
<td>NIVA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>30</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D7.2</td>
 <td>Report on fisheries economic indicators</td>
 <td>WP7</td>
<td>NIVA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>44</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D7.3</td>
 <td>Report on the integrated framework of future economic changes on ecosystem management</td>
 <td>WP7</td>
<td>NIVA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>44</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D7.4</td>
 <td>Policy brief in community preferences</td>
 <td>WP7</td>
<td>EMB</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>46</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D7.5</td>
 <td>Report on discussing the economic and governance challenges of implementing EcoScope indicators</td>
 <td>WP7</td>
<td>NIVA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>46</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.1</td>
 <td>Report of stakeholder survey</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>Thalassa</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>8</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.2</td>
 <td>Report on policies</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>EMB</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>9</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.3</td>
 <td>Report of First foresight workshop</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>EMB</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.4</td>
 <td>EcoScope Academy syllabus</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>36</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.5</td>
 <td>Report of analysis of data from stakeholders throughout the project lifetime</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>UOM</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>42</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.6</td>
 <td>EcoScope massive open online courses</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>patents, websites, filing, etc.</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>44</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.7</td>
 <td>Final stakeholder map</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>Thalassa</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D8.8</td>
 <td>report on second foresight workshop</td>
 <td>WP8</td>
<td>EMB</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>48</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D9.1</td>
 <td>Report on EcoScope business cases</td>
 <td>WP9</td>
<td>AGORA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D9.2</td>
 <td>Report on innovative business models</td>
 <td>WP9</td>
<td>AGORA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>24</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D9.3</td>
 <td>EcoScope business plan</td>
 <td>WP9</td>
<td>AGORA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>36</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D9.4</td>
 <td>Roadmap for achieving Technology Readiness Level 9</td>
 <td>WP9</td>
<td>AGORA</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>46</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.1</td>
 <td>Communication and dissemination plan</td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>6</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.2</td>
 <td>EcoScope stakeholders website</td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>other</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>6</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.3</td>
 <td>Communications toolbox</td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>other</td>
<td>Public</td>
<td>8</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.4</td>
 <td>EcoScope App high level requirements document</td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.5</td>
 <td>EcoScope toolbox and marketing strategy report </td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>18</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D10.6</td>
 <td>Report on EcoScope app</td>
 <td>WP10</td>
<td>BLIT</td>
<td>Report</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>44</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D11.1</td>
 <td>H- requirement No. 1</td>
<td>WP11</td>
 <td>AUTH</td>
<td>Ethics</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>6</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D11.2</td>
 <td>POPD- Requirement No.2</td>
 <td>WP11</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Ethics</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>6</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D11.3</td>
 <td>A- Requirement No.3 </td>
 <td>WP11</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Ethics</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D11.4</td>
 <td>NEC - Requirement No.4</td>
 <td>WP11</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Ethics</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td>D11.5</td>
 <td>EPQ - Requirement No.5</td>
 <td>WP11</td>
<td>AUTH</td>
<td>Ethics</td>
<td>Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commissions Services)</td>
<td>12</td>
<td></td>
 </tr>
</table>

EU funded H2020 EcoScope Project: Project Deliverables Table 

EU funded H2020 EcoScope Project: Deliverables Table

EcoScope Deliverables Table

Deliverables Table

The EcoScope project will develop an interoperable platform and a robust decision-making toolbox, available through a single public portal (The EcoScopium), to promote an efficient, ecosystem-based approach to the management of fisheries. Design and development of The EcoScopium will be guided by its stakeholders, including policymakers and scientific advisory bodies, and seek to address ecosystem degradation and the anthropogenic impacts that are causing fisheries to be unsustainably exploited across European Seas. 

The EcoScopium portal will provide seamless access to the EcoScope Platform, EcoScope Toolbox, EcoScope Academy, as well as other key products of the project including scientific publications, technical reports and a suite of graphics and media materials. The EcoScope Platform will organise and homogenise climatic, oceanographic, biogeochemical, biological and fisheries datasets for European Seas to a common standard type and format that will be available to the users through interactive mapping layers. The EcoScope Toolbox, a scoring system linked to the platform, will host ecosystem models, socio-economic indicators, fisheries and ecosystem assessment tools that can be used to examine and develop fisheries management and marine policy scenarios as well as maritime spatial planning simulations. 

Various groups of end-users and stakeholders will be involved in the design, development and operation of both the Platform and the Toolbox through a series of interactive forums and workshops. 


Novel assessment methods for data-poor fisheries, including non-commercial species, as well as for biodiversity and the conservation status of protected megafauna, will be used to assess the status of all ecosystem components across European Seas and test new technologies for evaluating the environmental, anthropogenic and climatic impact on ecosystems and fisheries. The novel assessment methods will be developed in consultation with stakeholders and make use of The EcoScopium.

A series of sophisticated capacity-building tools, such as online courses, documentary films, webinars and games, will be available to stakeholders through the EcoScope Academy. 

By filling these knowledge gaps and developing new methods and tools, the EcoScope project will provide an effective toolbox to decision-makers and end-users that will be adaptive to their capacity, needs and data availability. The toolbox will incorporate methods for dealing with uncertainty and deep uncertainty; thus, it will promote efficient, holistic, sustainable, ecosystem-based fisheries management that will aid towards restoring fisheries sustainability and ensuring a balance between food security and healthy seas.



The EcoScope project will develop an interoperable platform and a robust decision-making toolbox, available through a single public portal (The EcoScopium), to promote an efficient, ecosystem-based approach to the management of fisheries. 

About EcoScope Fisheries Project

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Project title: Ecocentric management for sustainable fisheries and healthy marine ecosystems

Acronym: EcoScope

Number: 101000302

Budget: €7,919,413.75

Project Duration: 48 Months

Partners: 24 Partners 

Coordinator: AUTH, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, (Athanassios Tsikliras & Sophie Manousi)

The overall objective of EcoScope is to co-design and develop an efficient, holistic, ecosystem-based approach to sustainable fisheries management that can be easily used by stakeholders and end-users, including policymakers and advisory bodies. This will be achieved through the design and development of the EcoScope Platform and the EcoScope Toolbox. The Platform will organise and homogenise large fisheries and other relevant datasets in a common standard type and format. The Toolbox will incorporate available (existing and new) assessment tools and methods and ecosystem models, which will be used to support integrated ecocentric management commensurate with safeguarding economic viability, within the policies and directives of the EU.
Specific objectives to support the overall objective are:

- To identify (gap analysis) and fill gaps in biological and ecological knowledge across marine ecosystem components, ocean and biogeochemical models, nutrients, low trophic levels, and planktonic food webs. 
- To harmonise and homogenise all available information required for ecosystem assessment into a single platform (EcoScope Platform) in a format that: (i) will link fisheries and biological data to oceanographic, biogeochemical, climatic, meteorological and other data and models, (ii) will allow the examination of management scenarios for future projections for each IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) climate change scenario, and (iii) will be open for public use through sophisticated and easy to use dashboard and interactive maps;
- To detect and evaluate climate forcing and fisheries impacts on species distributions and biomass, habitats and biodiversity using statistical, ecological niche- and food web models, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques (Big Data). 
- To assess the current status of all exploited populations (including non-commercial stocks), habitats and ecosystems using novel assessment methods and techniques and to assess sensitive and protected species using a novel Red-List Assessment method. 
- To create ecosystem models that will bring together all available scientific data and knowledge, impacts and expertise from management bodies (stakeholders) and will be used to assess ecosystem status and change, within the context of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). 
- To evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the current fisheries management approaches and future management scenarios, within the context of ecosystem management and climate change, against values, needs and expectations of society; to analyse fisheries economics indicators (income of fishers, fisheries profitability, government subsidies, human consumption and health) and to assess the economic and governance implications of the current management versus ecosystem-based fisheries management in Europe.
- To enable strong, active and continuous engagement and input of related stakeholders by creating a Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum that will be involved in co-designing and evaluating management tools through Foresight Workshops. The project will also create an online academy (EcoScope Academy) with sophisticated education material for online training courses, webinars and games for end-users and related stakeholder communities, including scientists and fishers, who will benefit from the toolbox and platform for long-life learning on ecosystem-based fisheries management as well as for improving their professional skills. The EcoScope Academy will create optimal usability of products for highly interactive sessions with stakeholders and interactive learning using advanced game technology and game design thinking.
- To design effective business models based on innovative concepts and products, in collaboration with both public and private actors, which will ensure the ongoing sustainable operation and update of the EcoScope platform, toolbox and other products and services beyond the project’s lifetime.
- To achieve maximum impact and visibility of the services, products, tasks and results produced within the EcoScope project through a range of targeted and engaging communication products. 


<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzrbcJdxkdKD1sKw7S86GuAbl6A-cne9ox24ZE4_07KiaB_w/viewform" style="color:#8BC53F;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Stakeholder Forum Registration</a>
 

**Stakeholder Engagement - The first Foresight Workshop**

The first EcoScope Foresight Workshop was held on 16th February 2022. The workshop was attended by stakeholders representing a variety of sectors and end-user groups. 

The aim of the workshop was to shape the ongoing design and elaboration of the tools and their outputs in collaboration with the workshop participants. The purpose is to design a suite of tools that can deliver what is required by policymakers and other end-users to implement an ecosystem-based approach to fisheries. 

The following document provides a brief of the EcoScope project.

[<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">EcoScope Briefing Document</button>](https://storage.googleapis.com/ecoscopium-cms-content/Eco_Scope_briefing_document_eb5bd798fd/Eco_Scope_briefing_document_eb5bd798fd.pdf)

A series of videos were presented to introduce the key planned products of the EcoScope project. The videos are available on the [EcoScope YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRIa37h9-HyHIbDtXzN8QlA/playlists) and below.

**Introduction to the EcoScope data tools**

A presentation introducing a diagram of the EcoScope tools as a central portal for fisheries management in European Seas. The video identifies stakeholder requirements for the EcoScope tools.

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yeyrCEBd-oA" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> 
 

**The EcoScope Platform**

The video presents the EcoScope Platform as a novel, model, interdisciplinary, e-tool integrating met-ocean, environmental, biogeochemical, biological, fisheries and socio-economic datasets, covering all European Seas. 

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yqobrb645fA?list=PLx-M1rcIt0mZETbDHxcpXgmyCfA08QZ97" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

**Evaluating fisheries management scenarios with EwE**

The video presents methods for evaluating fishies management scenarios using static (Ecopath), temporal (Ecosim) and spatial (Ecospace) simulation models (EwE).

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4fKF5c1uMkI?list=PLx-M1rcIt0mZETbDHxcpXgmyCfA08QZ97" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

**MSP (Maritime Spatial Planning) Challenge Simulation Platform**

Presentation of the MSP Challenge Software in the EcoScope project - Client-server software package to support marine spatial planning.

<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gBxsuwN_qBs?list=PLx-M1rcIt0mZETbDHxcpXgmyCfA08QZ97" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 

**The EcoScope Toolbox**

Presentation of the EcoScope Toolbox: A sustainability scoring system based on the assessment of all ecosystem components. It will operate as a decision support tool for examing fisheries management, policy scenarios and spatial planning simulations within the context of ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM).

<iframe width="1280" height="800" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w9snfFzj31Y?list=PLx-M1rcIt0mZETbDHxcpXgmyCfA08QZ97" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Stakeholders

<table>
 <tr>
 <th class="t-acro">Acronym/Abbreviation</th>
 <th>Title</th>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">AC</td>
 <td>Advisory Councils</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">ACCOBAMS</td>
 <td>Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">ACOM</td>
 <td>ICES Advisory Committee</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">ASCOBANS</td>
 <td>Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BANOS SRIA </td>
 <td>Joint Baltic Sea and North Sea Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Barcelona Conv.</td>
 <td>UNEP/MAP Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Bern Convention</td>
 <td>Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats in Europe</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BlueMed SRIA</td>
 <td>BlueMed Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Bucharest Conv. </td>
 <td>Convention for the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BLAC</td>
 <td>Black Sea Advisory Council</td>
 </tr>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BSAC</td>
 <td>Baltic Sea Advisory Council</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BSAP</td>
 <td>HELCOM’s Baltic Sea Action Plan</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">BBNJ</td>
 <td>Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">CBD</td>
 <td>Convention on Biological Diversity</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">CITES</td>
 <td>Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">CMS</td>
 <td>Convention on Migratory Species (also known as Bonn Convention)</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">COFI</td>
 <td>FAO Committee of Fisheries</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">CFP</td>
 <td>Common Fisheries Policy</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DCF</td>
 <td>Data Collection Framework</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DG</td>
 <td>Directorate-General of the European Commission</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DG ENV</td>
 <td>Directorate-General for Environment</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DG MARE</td>
 <td>Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DST</td>
 <td>Decision Support Table</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">DTO</td>
 <td>European Digital Twin of the Ocean</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">EBFM</td>
 <td>Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management</td>
 </tr>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">EC</td>
 <td>European Commission</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">EEA</td>
 <td>European Environmental Agency</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">EU</td>
 <td>European Union</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">FAO</td>
 <td>Food and Agriculture Organisation</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Fish Group</td>
 <td>HELCOM’s Group on Ecosystem-based Sustainable Fisheries</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">GES</td>
 <td>Good Environmental Status (under the MSFD)</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">GFCM</td>
 <td>General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">ICCAT</td>
 <td>International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">ICES</td>
 <td>International Council for the Exploration of the Sea</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IMP</td>
 <td>Integrated Maritime Policy</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IOC-UNESCO</td>
 <td>Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IPCC</td>
 <td>Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IPBES</td>
 <td>Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IPOA</td>
 <td>International Plans of Action</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">IUCN</td>
 <td>International Union for Conservation of Nature</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">JRC</td>
 <td>Joint Research Centre</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MAPs</td>
 <td>Multiannual Management Plans under the CFP</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MAP</td>
 <td>Mediterranean Action Plan under UNEP</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MEDAC</td>
 <td>Mediterranean Sea Advisory Council</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Mission Ocean</td>
 <td>EU Mission: Restore our Ocean and Waters</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MoU</td>
 <td>CMS Memoranda of Understanding</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MoU Sharks</td>
 <td>Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Sharks</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MPA</td>
 <td>Marine Protected Area</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MSFD</td>
 <td>Marine Strategy Framework Directive</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MSPD</td>
 <td>Marine Spatial Planning Directive</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MSRG</td>
 <td>Member States Regional Group</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">MSY</td>
 <td>Maximum Sustainable Yield</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">NBSAPs</td>
 <td>National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (under the CBD)</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">NEAS</td>
 <td>OSPAR’s North-East Atlantic Environmental Strategy</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">NSAC</td>
 <td>North Sea Advisory Council</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Ocean Decade</td>
 <td>UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">OSPAR</td>
 <td>Oslo-Paris Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment in the North-East Atlantic</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">HELCOM</td>
 <td>Helsinki Commission, implementing the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment in the Baltic Sea Area (Helsinki Convention)</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">PELAC</td>
 <td>Pelagic Stocks Advisory Council</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SAC</td>
 <td>Scientific Advisory Committee of Fisheries (GFCM)</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SCICOM</td>
 <td>ICES Scientific Committee</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SCRS</td>
 <td>Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (ICCAT)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SPAMIs</td>
 <td>Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (under the Barcelona Convention)</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SRA</td>
 <td>Strategic Research Agenda</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">STECF</td>
 <td>Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">RCP</td>
 <td>IPCC Representative Concentration Pathways</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">RSC</td>
 <td>Regional Sea Convention</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">Restoration Decade</td>
 <td>UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">RFMO</td>
 <td>Regional Fisheries Management Organisation</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">RSCAPs</td>
 <td>UNEP Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SACs</td>
 <td>Special Areas of Conservation (under the Habitats Directive)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SCIs</td>
 <td>Sites of Community Importance (under the Habitats Directive)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SDG</td>
 <td>UN Sustainable Development Goal
</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SoMFi</td>
 <td>GFCM State of the Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries Report</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SPAs</td>
 <td>Special Protection Areas (under the Birds Directive)</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">SRIAs</td>
 <td>Strategic Research and Innovation Agendas</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">UN</td>
 <td>United Nations</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">UNCLOS</td>
 <td>UN Convention on the Law of the Sea</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">UNESCO</td>
 <td>UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization</td>
 </tr>
<tr>
 <td class="t-acro">UNEP</td>
 <td>UN Environment Program</td>
 </tr>
</tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">UNFSA</td>
 <td>UN Fish Stocks Agreement</td>
 </tr>
 <tr>
 <td class="t-acro">WFD</td>
 <td>Water Framework Directive</td>
 </tr>
</table>

Glossary

**Anna Rindorf**

Ecosystem Based Marine Management

DTU Aqua, Denmark, Europe

Project Coordinator of SEAWISE

<a href="mailto:ar@aqua.dtu.dk">ar@aqua.dtu.dk</a>


**Howard Townsend**

Ecosystem Modelling

NOAA, USA, North America

<a href="mailto:howard.townsend@noaa.gov">howard.townsend@noaa.gov</a>

**Julia Blanchard**

Global Change Ecology and Fisheries

University of Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

<a href="mailto:julia.blanchard@utas.edu.au">julia.blanchard@utas.edu.au</a>


**Henning Winker**

Fisheries Stock Assessment and Modeling

GFCM, Italy, Europe

<a href="mailto:henning.winker@ec.europa.eu">henning.winker@ec.europa.eu</a>


**Astrid Jarre**

Marine Ecology and Fisheries

University of Cape Town, South Africa, Africa

<a href="mailto:Astrid.Jarre@uct.ac.za">Astrid.Jarre@uct.ac.za</a>

International Advisory Board information and contact details

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Title	Author(s)	Year of Publication	Journal Title	Issue Number	Page Number(s)	DOI
Exploring multiple stressor effects with Ecopath, Ecosim, and Ecospace: Research designs, modeling techniques, and future directions	A. Stock, C.C. Murray, E.J Gregr, J. Steenbeek, E. Woodburn, F. Micheli, V. Christensen, K.M.A. Chan	2023	Science of The Total Environment	Volume 869		View DOI/report
Global-scale parameters for ecological models	Gianpaolo Coro, Pasquale Bove, Kathleen Kesner-Reyes	2023	Scientific Data	Volume 10, issue 7		View DOI/report
Scientific progress made towards bridging the knowledge gap in the biology of Mediterranean marine fishes	Eva Daskalaki ,Evangelos Koufalis,Donna Dimarchopoulou,Athanassios C. Tsikliras	2022	PLOS ONE			View DOI/report
Ecosystem-based fisheries management increases catch and carbon sequestration through recovery of exploited stocks: The western Baltic Sea case study	Marco Scotti, Silvia Opitz, Liam MacNeil, Axel Kreutle, Christian Pusch and Rainer Froese	2022	Frontiers in Marine Science			View DOI/report
The potential effects of COVID-19 lockdown and the following restrictions on the status of eight target stocks in the Adriatic Sea	Giuseppe Scarcella, Silvia Angelini, Enrico Nicola Armelloni, Ilaria Costantini, Andrea De Felice, Stefano Guicciardi, Iole Leonori, Francesco Masnadi, Martina Scanu, and Gianpaolo Coro	2022	Frontiers in Marine Science			View DOI/report
Filling Gaps in Trawl Surveys at Sea through Spatiotemporal and Environmental Modelling	Gianpaolo Coro, Pasquale Bove, Enrico Nicola Armelloni, Francesco Masnadi, Martina Scanu, and Giuseppe Scarcella	2022	Frontiers in Marine Science			View DOI/report
Modelling and assessing the ecosystem of the Aegean Sea, a major hub of the eastern Mediterranean at the intersection of Europe and Asia	Ioannis Keramidasa, Donna Dimarchopouloub, Athanassios C. Tsiklirasa	2022	ScienceDirect	Volume 56		View DOI/report
Ecocentric Fisheries Management in European Seas (Part I): Data Gaps, Base Models and Initial Assessments	Athanassios C. Tsikliras, Georgi M. Daskalov, Georgios Sylaios, Gianpaolo Coro, Marco Scotti, David Grémillet et al.		Frontiers in Marine Science			View DOI/report

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