Eurofleets+ D9.13 Summary achievements and recommendations for policymakers

The overall goal for EUROFLEETS+, which commenced in 2019, was to facilitate open free of charge access to an integrated and advanced research vessel fleet, designed to meet the evolving and challenging needs of the user community. This was a huge undertaking with ambitions to enable access to a unique fleet of 27 state-of-the-art research vessels from European and international partners. Through competitive Calls, researchers were able to access the entire North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea, Pacific Southern Ocean and Ross Sea. Built on the achievements of the EUROFLEETS projects, there is a common understanding among the consortium that it is necessary to bring the coordination and utilisation of the European funded activity of the RV fleet up to a new and more sustainable level beyond the project lifetime .The approach, under discussion within the consortium, to achieve this goal is to establish a legal entity, in particular an AISBL (Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif) (see EUROFLEETS+ Deliverable 8.1), named EUROFLEETS Research Infrastructure, that provides a formal structure for cooperating on a pan-European level. The goal of EUROFLEETS RI will be to facilitate access to unique marine infrastructures to enable excellent research in order to sustainably support healthy oceans, increased cooperation in technical development, and sharing of knowledge in RV operations & management as well as increasing ocean literacy and provide a clear roadmap for the continued integration and advancement of the European RV fleet. EUROFLEETS RI will play a central role in delivering the European Union Missions by the provision of access to our Seas and Oceans through facilitation of multidisciplinary science teams tackling changing climate, supporting bio-medical research, ocean monitoring, sustainable fisheries and advancing the European Green Deal. The EUROFLEETS RI design phase will be closed at the end of the EUROFLEETS+ project (October 2023) with the aim of being operational and launching the first EUROFLEETS RI Transnational Access call programme by January 2025. EUROFLEETS RI wish to continue providing vital necessary Transnational Access programmes utilizing its member's infrastructures to researchers and scientists into the future through funding programmers such as Horizon Europe. EUROFLEETS RI will work together with the European Commission in developing other long term sustainable funding support programmes to facilitate planned access to our Seas and Oceans through access, training and data provision.