Work Packages

Lead: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

WP1 will create the necessary governance structure for effective, efficient and timely implementation and management of the EcoScope project by establishing the necessary procedures, facilitating the communication flow among partners and ensuring timely reporting to the European Commission (EC). The general aim is reached through specific objectives:

1. Ensuring that the project objectives and challenges are achieved, and deliverables/milestones are completed on time and within the proposed budget.
2. Facilitating communication among the Coordinator, the partners and the EC.
3. Ensuring that all necessary measures are taken to avoid or mitigate potential risks.
4. Identifying and resolving any potential conflicts among the partners and with external bodies.

Lead: Institut po bioraznoobrazie i ekosistemni izsledvaniya balgarska akademiya na

The aim of WP2 is to review and assess the present state of fisheries management and supporting oceanographic, ecosystem and socio-economic information to facilitate the development and implementation of efficient ecosystem- based fisheries management (EBFM) in European Seas. The following specific objectives have been identified:

1. Review the available data in fisheries, oceanography, biology, ecosystem and socio-economy related to EBFM
2. Review and evaluate current management schemes, measures and provision of scientific advice with respect to EBFM
3. Identify gaps in knowledge and linkages of fisheries to social cohesion and health in coastal areas
4. Develop ways to collect new data (in the short term) to fill in the gaps and data needs for ecosystem assessments (WP5) and ecological models (WP6)
5. Develop a concept and strategy for data collection (in the long term), and develop the knowledge base and research methodology for efficient and pragmatic EBMF

Lead: Dimokritio Panepistimio Thrakis

WP3 will develop, demonstrate and maintain the EcoScope Platform, one of the main components of EcoScopium public portal and products of the EcoScope project, which will host meteorological, oceanographic, biogeochemical, environmental, biological, fishery, socio-economic datasets and homogenise them into common standard type and format following international protocols. Data will cover all study areas and will be assembled, compiled and integrated in the system from a multitude of external sources, allowing for an integrated and holistic fisheries management approach within the ecosystem context. The EcoScope Platform will be the modular tool linking data (collected by modern observational multi-platforms, hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model outputs, biological data, etc.) with environmental- and human drivers and with complex spatio-temporal ecosystem models. The EcoScope Platform will couple predictions of changes in marine biogeochemistry, food webs and productivity of ecosystems within the framework of climate change and increased anthropogenic forcing. After data harmonization and injection, the EcoScope Platform will provide data to end-users and stakeholders, in standardised types and formats.

Lead: Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnologies (CNR-IRBIM)

WP4 aims to collect, align, and standardize global-scale climatic parameters in time (link to WP3) and re-use them in ecological models. In this WP, statistical models and machine-learning models (both supervised and unsupervised) will be used for Big Data analysis operations. The WP includes the development of an inference system for vessel-transmitted information that estimates fishing effort and other features related to patterns and processes of fishing activities per fleet and area. All data and models will feed an overarching model that will assess the impact of climate change and fisheries on the ecosystem, and will produce a vulnerability and a risk assessment index. With the completion of WP4, a global- scale index on the impact of climate and human activities on biodiversity, ecosystems and fisheries will be delivered that will be incorporated in the EcoScope Toolbox (WP5).

Lead: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

WP5 aims to assess the status of the ecosystem across all case studies (Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea, Balearic Sea, Baltic Sea, Bay of Biscay, Black Sea, Levantine Sea, North Sea) and the status of ecosystem components including commercial and non-commercial fish and shellfish, communities, habitats and megafauna (marine mammals, reptiles seabirds, large sharks and rays) through a series of indicators that will be available on the EcoScopium public portal. The ultimate objective of WP5 is to develop a scoring system, the EcoScope Toolbox, comprised of several metrics from different WPs that will be used for management and policy purposes as well as for comparisons among areas and management scenarios. The specific objectives of WP5 that will be applied to all case studies (and to larger regions if data availability permits) are to:

1. Assess commercial and non-commercial fish and invertebrate stocks using novel methods
2. Evaluate anthropogenic and climate induced changes in marine communities
3. Assess the status of protected megafauna groups and habitats
4. Determine overall ecosystem fisheries exploitation and potential profitability
5. Perform a marine ecosystem assessment and develop a scoring system based on various metrics, indices and indicators

Lead: Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research

WP6 aims to develop and implement Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) ecosystem models (www.ecoapth.org) for all case studies as the necessary foundation to examine a range of fishery and ecosystem management and policy scenarios under a changing environment from the local scale to EU spatial scale as required for CFP and MSFD. The models will be coupled with environmental data, oceanographic and biogeochemical models in order to develop the basis required to conduct and run the scenarios. In order to enhance the reliability of the information provided to policy makers, uncertainty and deep uncertainty tools will be developed and implemented into the scenario running and evaluation process. Further enrichment of scenario testing tools will be implemented through the development of a fisheries edition of the MSP Challenge simulation platform for a selected region (Eastern Mediterranean Sea) and then applying this fisheries edition to existing MSP Challenge simulation platform editions (Baltic Sea, North Sea, Adriatic Sea).

Lead: Norsk Institutt For Vannforskning NIVA

The overall objective of WP7 is to present the most up-to-date knowledge on the societal expectations and preferences of citizens and stakeholders and to assess the economic and governance implications of current management and ecosystem-based fisheries management in Europe. Specifically, the WP7 will:

1. Assess the societal expectations and preferences of current management and ecosystem-based fisheries management
2. Develop fisheries economics indicators by analysing fishers' income, human consumption and governmental subsidies
3. Develop an integrated framework (bioeconomic modelling) to assess the effects of future changes in the marine ecosystem including biological interactions, habitats, climate change and fisheries
4. Evaluate the management and governance implications of using indicators that link economy to ecology in ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Lead: European Marine Board IVZW

WP8 on stakeholder engagement and capacity building aims to ensure that the interoperable EcoScope Platform and decision-making EcoScope Toolbox developed within the EcoScope project will be co-designed with the users and stakeholders, and to ensure that these tools are taken up through capacity development. The objectives of the task are to:

1. Create the EcoScope Stakeholder Knowledge Exchange Forum by identifying and mapping the stakeholders and managing the interaction with them
2. Hold stakeholder co-design meetings to identify their needs, understand their requirements, and feed back the results of the project
3. Undertake stakeholder surveys
4. Build capacity through the creation of online courses and seminars, i.e. the EcoScope Academy

Lead: Agora Partners

WP9 aims to design effective business models, promoting new forms of collaboration between public and private actors to prepare the introduction and sustainability of the EcoScope products and services beyond the duration of the project. It will prepare an exploitation package to introduce the EcoScope products and services to various public and private stakeholders and will ensure all Results and Background Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are protected.

Lead: Blue Lobster IT Limited

The EcoScope project results will be presented at major events, conferences and workshops with the participation of end-users and stakeholder groups. The project results will be available through a website, social media, press releases, newsletters, games, simulators, dashboards and a smartphone EcoScope App to engage with communities about illegal fishing activities, which will provide valuable feedback to the EcoScopium public portal and the communities themselves.

The general output will be presented with news, articles, a short documentary film and the scientific output will be published in scientific journals and conference proceedings. The primary objectives are to:

1. Increase the profile of the project to the various stakeholder groups and society;
2. Achieve maximum impact and visibility of the services, products, tasks and results produced in the EcoScope project;
3. Produce materials to support the actions within other WP’s and to present their results; and
4. Develop a mobile application (EcoScope App) for promoting user engagement to marine ecosystem protection

Lead: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The objective is to ensure compliance with the 'ethics requirements' set out in this work package.