On 23 November 2017, The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), lead the organisation of a COLUMBUS Brokerage Event, in collaboration with fellow COLUMBUS partners, Seascape Consultants, EuroGOOS, and Aquatera, as well as the related initiative, EMODnet. The event took place during the AtlantOS General Assembly in Gran Canaria, Spain. The goal of this event was to facilitate brokerage and foster partnerships between two stakeholder groups: representatives of national marine observations and data programmes, based in Europe and from across the Atlantic; and, sensor developers who have generated new technologies through their participation in EU-funded projects.
New technologies and innovations in sensor development funded through the EU framework programmes were presented and discussed to aid knowledge transfer and foster collaboration among these marine and maritime stakeholders.
The participants, including publicly-funded organisations and SMEs, comprised of:
• European companies that are focused on maritime sensing technologies and/or observing platforms and have recently participated in the development of new sensors with the support of the European Commission-funded research and innovation projects;
• Companies and institutions with expertise in marine sensor interoperability, data collection and transmission, and data sharing and use, who have developed innovative cutting-edge solutions, mostly with the support of the European Commission, in the framework of research and innovation projects;
• Potential users of these innovations amongst the AtlantOS partnership, together representing the European oceanographic observation and monitoring community.
Through its brokerage events and other initiatives, the Horizon 2020 COLUMBUS project aims to ensure that applicable knowledge generated through EU-funded projects is transferred effectively to marine and maritime sectors. The intention of this effective transfer is to capitalise on the European Commission’s investment in research and contribute to sustainable Blue Growth.
The event proved to be a significant success, and raised awareness of selected sensor technologies and innovations to end-users. The knowledge generated will now be applied by new actors in both new ways and new sectors, thus achieving measurable impact and value.
The full event report will be made available on this website. For more information on COLUMBUS, please contact the Project Manager, Cliona Ní Cheallacháin, AquaTT, at cliona@aquatt.ie.
