Call for Early Applications

For projects to contribute to
the European Digital Twin Ocean 

Apply before 15 Feb 2024 for a chance to be showcased at the

Digital Ocean Forum 2024

Initiatives that best demonstrate their potential in responding to societal challenges e.g., building coastal resilience, mitigating and adapting to climate change, or building nature-based solutions will receive support to integrate into the European Digital Twin Ocean and be showcased for visibility.

As the technical development of the backbone infrastructure of the European Digital Twin Ocean continues gaining momentum, EDITO-Infra invites early applications from projects who wish to integrate to the platform and contribute to shaping the features and high-level visibility of the European Digital Twin Ocean.

Several onboarding milestones will take place over the next 3 years (2024-2026), sorted into 2 categories:

  • Demonstration: Aiming at showcasing during major public high-level events societal impactful marine applications that are (close-to) ready to be integrated into the European Digital Twin Ocean platform. Demonstration milestones will occur annually. Applications to the first demonstration call are now open.
  • Integration: Aiming at onboarding and integrating projects into the EDITO platform and preparing for the next Demonstration milestone. Integration milestones will take place every 6 months, starting in July 2024.
A Call for Expressions of Interest will be launched at each milestone, with a deadline for applications. The following process and criteria will apply.


DEMONSTRATION MILESTONES

Upon closing the deadline for applications, a selection process will select 10 projects that are close-to-ready and (pre-)operational to integrate into the Digital Twin Ocean infrastructure. They should be impactful for user communities, adapted and targeted to high-level and general public audience. Selected projects will be showcased at high-level events (i.e., Digital Ocean Forum) to demonstrate the European Digital Twin Ocean capacity to respond to societal challenges, including building coastal resilience, mitigating, and adapting to climate change, and building nature-based solutions. Selection criteria include:
  • Maturity in the development of your project (based on your TRL# and your maturity roadmap).
  • Innovative features, including visualization or Decision Support Tools across (multi)disciplinary context.
  • Identified contribution to relevant research and/or policy questions, accompanied by an attractive narrative, targeted towards science-policy-society interface.
  • Involvement of intermediate and end-user communities.
  • Societal impact, including the ability to draw inspiration on the audience, and strong ability to showcase the benefits of integrating into the EU DTO.
What’s in for you? If your application is successful:
  • Your project will receive support to integrate into the Digital Twin Ocean platform and benefit from processing capabilities and the data lake data reservoir.
  • Your project will be advertised and promoted during high-level events, such as the next Digital Ocean Forum (Brussels, 12-13 June 2024) or the next UN Ocean conference (France, June 2025).
  • In the framework of the annual Digital Ocean Forum, you will secure access to participate in the Scientific & Technical Workshop. Depending on the maturity of your project, you will have a slot (TedX-like presentation) in the High-Level Legacy Event, a booth in the major exhibition pavilion, or even be shown in the main European Digital Twin Ocean demonstration setup (very high visibility).



INTEGRATION MILESTONES

Upon closing the deadline for applications, a selection process will select 10 projects that will be able to test this infrastructure, benefit for premium technical support to integrate and benefit from the infrastructure. Selection criteria include:
  • Medium maturity in the development of your project (based on your TRL# and maturity roadmap).
  • Innovative features, across (multi)disciplinary context.
  • Involvement of intermediate and end-user communities.
  • Societal impact, including the ability to showcase the benefits from integrating into the European Digital Twin Ocean.
What’s in for you? If your application is successful:
  • Your project will receive support to integrate into the Digital Twin Ocean platform and benefit from processing capabilities and the data lake data reservoir.
  • Depending on the maturity of your project, it will also benefit from promotion during high-level events.
  • The first Integration Call will be launched in July 2024.

If you have any questions or comments regarding these Calls, please kindly reach out to digital-ocean-forum-2024@edito-infra.eu.