Work Packages and Tasks

The management WP covers two types of tasks, those directly orientated towards satisfying the European Commission (EC) contractual obligations on one hand and the internal coordination and motivation of the consortium on the other hand.
Both are connected. The WP involves a limited number of experienced beneficiaries in order to provide a professional management of the project. The whole management structure ensures efficient project coordination adapted to the EC’s requirements and to the important number of beneficiaries.
The key achievements of this management will be the on-time delivery of Periodic Reports, Deliverables and Milestones within the expected costs.

Task 1.1: Satisfaction of EC requirements

• Sub Task 1.1.1 Grant and Consortium Agreements
• Sub Task 1.1.2 Periodic reports preparation including gender follow up
• Sub Task 1.1.3 Quality Assurance Plan

Task 1.2: Consortium motivation and coordination

• Sub Task 1.2.2 Operational Activities coordination - Fostering of WPs interactions

Task 1.3: Collaborative tool and mailing lists

Deliverables

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The WP2 is dedicated to preparation and promotion of EUROFLEETS contribution to the strategic vision for European RVs and associated equipment which will propose future integration steps to volunteering European research fleets. It will also demonstrate the significant progress achieved and promote marine Research Infrastructures and disseminate about quality of European marine services.

Efforts will be undertaken to:

• Maintain a European shared strategic view on RVs and associated equipment, and their foreseeable evolution and long term tendencies;
• Communicate on the capacities of European research fleets as well as associated scientific results to contribute to the promotion of European excellence in marine research;
• Benchmark progresses and results of main international research fleets.

This WP will cover governance and strategic aspects in conjunction with all WPs: this is particularly relevant for NA2 for Polar vision, NA3 for future integration of Regional RVs in ESFRI roadmap, NA5 for Public Private Partnership (PPP) opportunities, and JRA1 for Regional RVs guidelines and design.
EUROFLEETS2 main challenges are to maintain and to further develop links with international coordination groups such as OFEG (Ocean Facilities Exchange Group, grouping 6 key European ship operators), ERVO (European Research Vessel Operators) Group or IRSO (International Research Ship Operators) Group. More international contacts and cross fertilization with other European projects are also planned through a dedicated task.
Communication and outreach aspects have been incorporated in this WP as essential tools for good and sustainable progress.

Task 2.1: Strategic governance of European Research Fleets

• Sub Task 2.1.1 Fleet Evolution Group and associated database follow up
• Sub Task 2.1.2 Common procurement strategy within European research fleets
• Sub Task 2.1.3 EUROFLEETS sustainability
• Sub Task 2.1.4 EUROFLEETS shared scheduling tool

Task 2.2: Consolidation of European and international partnerships

Task 2.3: Scientific Advisory Committee

Task 2.4: Communication and outreach

• Sub Task 2.4.1 Plan for communication and outreach and its implementation
• Sub Task 2.4.2 EUROFLEETS2 electronic information structure (EurOcean, GeoEcoMar)

Deliverables

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The NA2 "Polar Vision" will be the emblematic "Pioneering Group" of the EUROFLEETS2 project aiming at integrating the European Polar Research Vessel (PRV) fleet and establishing models for implementing a joint coordination of these vessels. It aims at optimizing the usage of the European Polar Research Fleet by:

• determining the available capacities of Polar Research Vessels;
• comparing that with the scientific demand, in accordance with IASC (International Arctic Science Committee) and SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research), for research in the Polar Oceans and;
• establishing models for optimization of this fleet by better coordination of the vessels' scheduling and by harmonizing the deployment of ice-strengthened research vessels with the heavy icebreakers.

This WP will also open up perspectives for construction and common operation of polar marine infrastructures in the future. This WP aims to support European marine research in ice-covered waters, with main focus on the "high Arctic". Nevertheless, a better coordination of Arctic Research capacities would directly lead to more research capacities in the Antarctic. The final goal of this WP is to establish models of implementation of a European/International Polar Research Fleet for both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

Because of the level of complexity associated with operations in extreme environments, international cooperation has always been a key component of successful Polar Research. International partners (e.g. Arctic Rim Nations, International Partners in Antarctic Research) will be consulted and involved in all relevant aspects of this WP. The AWI is currently hosting the IASC office in Potsdam. IASC will thus be directly informed and involved via the AWI in all planned activities and strategies deriving from this WP.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1:

This WP is new and innovative to EUROFLEETS. It can be seen as a legacy of the ERICON-AB FP 7 project and will built on the results derived from this project. The ERICON-AB project results show that within the current political and financial environment it might be preferable to share existing facilities within a co-operational agreement, with the perspective for construction and common operation of polar marine infrastructures in the future.

Task 3.1: Determination of the available capacities;

Task 3.2: Determination of the scientific demand for Polar Research vessels;

Task 3.3: Strategic Vision for a Polar Fleet.

Deliverables

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The research vessels and their underwater equipment represent the most crucial infrastructures required for marine sciences. They provide sea access for the whole community of researchers (any scientific disciplines merged) from the sea surface down to the sea-floor and enable all kinds of observations, in-situ measurements,
sampling and mapping.

Over the years and in parallel with an increasing awareness of the stakes related to a so-called “healthy and productive seas and oceans”, the assigned missions on research vessels become more complicated, technically sophisticated, and furthermore strictly speaking conducted in a frame exceeding that for academic research.
The complexity of supporting activities such as :

• Basic and multidisciplinary marine research targeting and forecasting e.g. climate change impacts on marine
  ecosystems;
• Data collection in management contexts such as the Marine Framework Strategy Directive (MFSD) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP);
  
• The on-going search for new resources within the last unexplored frontier of the globe – the oceans is logistically demanding, costly and trans-frontier by nature. Consequently, countries and their marine institutions are forced to significantly increase over the next decades the international collaboration and sharing of facilities in order to meet the ever increasing demands from maritime stakeholders in terms of continuously updating data series and providing new insights into the marine realm. The underlying agenda here does not only call for collaboration in the context of data quality and relevance but also for efforts to reduce the costs involved in operating these marine infrastructures. The sharing of facilities and increased interoperability are cornerstones in this context. The EUROFLEETS projects are instrumental in this process by establishing and developing the relevant networks and cost-efficient procedures needed to push collaboration at all levels forward.

This WP paves the road towards an increased marine Regional RV integration, with reference to the ESFRI roadmap objectives in the context of a European distributed Research Infrastructure, through keystone initiatives:

• Develop a ‘Regional virtual fleet’ scheme for trans-national cooperation and implement the concept within a range of pioneering groups;
• Define a sustainable concept for trans-national exploitation of embarked heavy duty equipment based on a thorough analysis of a selected case: Large scale seismic acquisition systems;
• Enhance a coordinated and cost-effective use of European research vessels by providing up-to-date information on planned, ongoing and completed cruises, the research fleet and its associated large equipment, and by facilitating and fine-tuning the planning of cruises between different RV operators and the scientific community. Promote interoperability by deploying common EUROFLEETS software for logging data and metadata on a wide range of European research vessel. Implement a streamlined flow of marine data from the European research vessels to relevant data centres and the SeaDataNet infrastructure, thereby also providing e-access to underway data sets.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1:

Interoperability (of equipment deployment on different vessels as of equipment use by any researchers) is a key issue to enhance the potential of any distributed infrastructure. Great progress has been made within EUROFLEETS1, in which more than 900 assessments of interoperability for large exchangeable instruments (LEXI) have been identified, along with a list of ships in which these instruments can be utilized.

Task 4.1: Virtual fleets

Task 4.2: Large scale seismic acquisition systems

Task 4.3: Operation, maintenance and upgrading of EVIOR portal, deployment of embarked common (meta-) data acquisition and transmission software

Task 4.4: Towards a pan-European research fleet

Deliverables

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This work package is indispensable for the implementation of the TNA to the research vessels and equipment offered in EUROFLEETS2. It will be devoted to the practical management of all 7 calls.

These calls will consist of 5 regional calls where Global/Ocean and Regional Research Vessels will be opened together in several calls for certain regions (Polar and Sub Polar Seas, Mediterranean & Black Sea, North Sea, Baltic Sea, North Atlantic etc.). Additionally a super integration call will be launched in which one single flagship project will be selected for the 4 years period giving access to several research vessels or to research vessels in combination with other infrastructures. Finally a call for embarked equipment will be launched for funding the installation and usage of unique equipment not usually deployed on a Research Vessel not funded within the EUROFLEETS2 project.

The WP will be in charge of the call preparation, call dissemination, the proposal evaluation, the selection procedures and post-cruise workshop organisation. The post-cruise workshop will gather all PIs of the funded cruises to present their results and to give feedback on the cruises. The EUROFLEETS Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) will closely cooperate with this WP. It will supervise the full process to ensure that the evaluation and selection process and the ship-time allocation will be transparent and fair. The SAC will also support this WP by giving recommendations to continuously improve the evaluation and selection procedure during the duration of this WP.

Additionally, pre-cruise workshops will jointly be carried out with NA6 "Training & Floating Universities" in order to better integrate scientists from less or non-equipped countries and industrialists (SME´s) in the scientific parties of the funded cruises. The work will be carried out in close cooperation with the logistic review panel by allocating the right ships and equipment to the successful proposals, scheduling of the expeditions and supporting the PIs in any questions concerning their cruises.

Besides practical management of the EUROFLEETS2 calls organized under the TNA activities this WP will also feature a strategic part, which works towards a shared evaluation of European calls for ship-time. Models for a shared evaluation system will be developed and discussed with national, European and international agencies. The aim is to achieve an agreement with most of these agencies to adopt the process initiated in the EUROFLEETS projects for the whole or a part of their allocation of ship-time.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1:

This work package is a direct continuation of the EUROFLEETS1 WP5 "EUROFLEETS scientific user access modality and peer review". The work here will be based on the lessons learnt in the EUROFLEETS1 calls for oceanic and regional vessels.

Task 5.1: Call Preparation and Call Implementation

Task 5.2: Evaluation and selection of proposals and allocation of ship-time

Task 5.3: Models to achieve a shared European evaluation procedure

Deliverables

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“Europe needs to make a step change in its research and innovation performance” meaning that related activities should accordingly be “better linked”, breaking away “from traditional compartmentalized approaches”. It proposes that  policies  and  EC  funding  “from  research  to  market” should  be  better  integrated  to  “make  Europe  better  at turning knowledge into innovation”.

Europe  needs  to  step  up  its  performance  in  creating  impact  from  research  and  innovation  funding.  Obstacles remain in transferring research outcomes from the laboratory through to the development, commercialisation and application  phases.  As  indicated  in  the  Innovation  Union,  this  requires  an  essential  role  for  industry  in  setting priorities and through public private partnerships. Access to EC programmes must be simplified and their leverage effect  on  private  sector  investment  enhanced.  Through  their  flexibility  and  agility,  SMEs  play  a  pivotal  role  in developing novel products and services.

EUROFLEETS2 deals with providing a mobile infrastructure of research vessels and large equipment that can be used as platforms for marine and ocean research and for which transnational access can be funded by EC for users with excellent research ideas. Moreover EUROFLEETS2 aims at improving the efficiency of operating and managing  the  research  fleets  and  equipment  and  streamlining  the  transfer  of  marine  data  from  the  vessel acquisition systems to the data centres to end users. 

There are several areas of common interest between the EUROFLEETS RV operators and industrial operators in managing  and  operating  dedicated  vessels  for research  and  survey  purposes.  In  addition  there  are  areas  of common interest between traditional EUROFLEETS users and industrial users that are requiring access to marine and ocean RVs, equipment or data.

Therefore it is important to establish and undertake regular communication between the EUROFLEETS project and parties  from  industry,  in  particular  those  engaged  in  operating  research  and  survey  vessels  and  associated equipment, those using marine and ocean data for various use applications, and those engaged in design and outfitting of vessels and scientific equipment. These dialogues should lead to identifying innovation opportunities and  formulating  a  number  of  feasible  business  cases  that  might  be  implemented  and  evaluated  as  part  of EUROFLEETS2.  The  business  cases  will  also  consider  the  aspects  of  technology  transfer  and  exploitation  of results by industry. 
 
The objectives of this Work Package can be formulated as: 

•   Enlarging the Club of Industrial Interests (CII);
•   Establishing a regular dialogue with industrial organisations as providers and users;
•   Exploring  opportunities  for  technology  transfer  and  innovation  between  EUROFLEETS2  project  and industry;
•   Implementing and evaluating a number of potential business cases;
•   Create guidelines to improve improve Intellectual Property Rights (IPR);
•   Make an inventory of exploitable results to be transfered to industry;

 
Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1

This  aspect  of  industrial  engagement  has  been  initiated  during  EUROFLEETS1.  Nevertheless,  the  Industrial Advisory Committee (IAC) and a Club of Industrial Interests (CII) for innovation and technology transfer are still under  implementation.  This  can  be  explained  by  the  time  needed  to  create  new  scientifical  results  potentially interesting to industrials. However, the aim is to structure the links between marine research and industry, in the remaining period of EUROFLEETS1. This WP is to guarantee that EUROFLEETS2 will give better opportunities for such a dialogue and synergy because the project is then more mature with touchable results.

Task 6.1: Establishing a regular dialogue with industrial organisations

Task 6.2: Exploring opportunities for technology transfer and innovation between EUROFLEETS project and industry

Task 6.3: Implementing and evaluating a number of potential business cases

Task 6.4: Exploitation, IPR and dissemination of EUROFLEETS1 and 2 results

Deliverables

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The scope of this work package is to prepare the next generation of European marine scientists and broaden the access to world-class marine infrastructures by promoting the excellence of less-equipped countries.

Costly TNA of Global/Ocean class Research Vessels (RVs) cannot be assigned on the basis of need, but have to be obtained only on the base of scientific excellence. This presupposes adequate planning and implementation of high-return  first-class  scientific  research.  However,  less  equipped  countries  cannot  compete  for  TNA  with  the countries  that  are  used  to  own,  manage  and  access  Global/Ocean  class  RVs  to  perform  first-class  scientific research. The best way to foster widespread TNA to world-class marine infrastructures is to perform on board Training-Through-Research specifically designed for young researchers, postgraduate students and technicians.

Effective on board training of PhD students and young emerging researchers will contribute to consolidate their  careers, to develop a network of colleagues and in turn may transfer the knowledge to a large number of mentored  students in a downflow cascading process. Preparatory workshops will also be organized to support emerging  researchers and postgraduate students in writing competitive proposals for EUROFLEETS ship-time and providing  a significant familiarization with the infrastructures and their facilities.
 
Effective training aims to:

the  organization  of  preparatory  workshops  to  acquaint  emerging  researchers  with  writing  competitive  proposals  for  ship-time.  These  workshops  will  foster  scientists  from  less-equipped  countries  to  collaborate  worldwide on study areas they are more familiar with.

the organization of on-board training courses aimed at young researchers, technicians and postgraduate (i.e. MSc,  PhD)  students.  Innovative  pilot  courses  will  be  developed  by  consolidation  and  improvement  of  the experience developed in EUROFLEETS1, following protocols defined with high level authorities (IMarEST).

the organization of a pilot experiment of floating university. The RV DANA will be entirely devoted to host a all-embracing floating university during a transit leg.

the organization of a series of follow-up and add-on training activities including: 1) an access program on EUROFLEETS cruises (for students on available spare berths, for local co-chief from less-equipped countries, for High  School  teachers);  2)  training  for  technicians  either  on  specific  equipment  and  for  preparedness  and response  to  harsh  polar  conditions  3)  Publication  on  the  website  of  the  on  board  training  modules  and  documents developed in EUROFLEETS1. This follow-up of EUROFLEETS1 will be accompanied by the reference  of available teachers from WP7.
 
Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1
 
A significant experience and know-how about the organization of on board training courses has been developed within EUROFLEETS1. Participant‟s evaluation of these training courses shows that the EUROFLEETS training programme  offers  offshore  training  opportunities  not  otherwise  available  and  utilizes  existing  and extremely valuable capacity within the EU research vessel fleet. As a follow-up, the effective hands-on training modules  and  a  number  of  documents  (calls,  selection  of  students,  guides,  evaluations,  reports)  developed  in EUROFLEETS1 will be made available on the website. Moreover, a number of  innovative pilot courses will be developed  by  consolidation  and  improvement  of  the  experience developed in  EUROFLEETS1.  An  initiative  on field training‟ for young technicians will be pursued as follow-up the activity already initiated in EUROFLEETS1. Finally, as a follow-up of what will be realized in 2012 on board the EUROFLEETS GATEWAY cruise of RV Marion Dufresne, programmes for the on-board placement where there is availability of spare berths on participating RVs and within EUROFLEETS surveys will be developed for students, high-school teachers, and co-chief researchers from a less equipped country.

Task 7.1: Workshops (M1-M24) (TUT, OGS and all WP7 partners)

Task 7.2: On board Training courses (M1-M48) (CNR, OGS and all WP7 partners)
 
Task 7.3: Floating Universities (M10-M30) (DTU Aqua, OGS and all WP7 partners)
 
Task 7.4: Add-on and follow-up training activities (M1-M48) (MI, OGS and all WP7 partner)

• Subtask 7.4.2 (IPEV, OGS and all WP7 partner)
• Subtask 7.4.3 (MI, OGS and all WP7 partner)

Deliverables

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TNA1 constitutes the heart of the EUROFLEETS2 proposal, because it offers the opportunity to scientific groups to gain access in full transparency to high cost research infrastructures thanks to EC funding. TNA1 so offers access to 8 Global/Ocean and 14 Regional European research vessels distributed all over European and world seas and oceans.

Global/Ocean and Regional RVs will be offered within 5 regional calls for ship time. They will be organized under WP5 NA4 during the first two years of the Project and dedicated to: Polar and sub polar regions, Mediterranean Sea, North Sea and Baltic Sea, Northern Atlantic and Others namely Red Sea and Indian Ocean. This innovative way to run the ship time calls is proposed to better meet the needs of the scientific end users and to increase the
number of received cruise proposals.

Preparatory workshops will be organized under WP7 NA6 to facilitate participation to these calls to scientists from non- or less-equipped countries as to industrialists and SMEs, and to introduce to them the evaluation criteria.
 
Peer review will be conducted on the same bases than EUROFLEETS1 mobilizing for each cruise proposal two to three  independent  evaluators  which  reports  and  recommendations  are  put  together  by  a  member  of  the EUROFLEETS Scientific Review Panel (SRP).
 
The  same  SRP  will  inter  rank  the  various eligible cruise proposals  on basis  on  their scientific  excellence  and transmit  its  conclusions  to  the  EUROFLEETS  Logistic  Review  Panel  where  managers  of  accessible  RVs  are sitting.  The  objective  of  the LRP  is  to maximise  the  number of  funded cruise  proposals  keeping  in  mind  their scientific excellence as judged by the SRP.

A  EUROFLEETS  contract  will  rule  the  relationship  between  scientific  party  and  EUROFLEETS  beneficiary. Commitments applicable to each cruise PI (Principal Investigator) in terms of data deposit, information to EC and scientific report are summed up in this contract.

The EUROFLEETS SRP is also taking care of review of cruise scientific reports. All PIs of funded cruises will participate to a EUROFLEETS conclusive workshop to introduce their firsts results and share their feed back on funded cruises.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1
 
This WP builds on the successful TNA ship time access that was awarded as part of the EUROFLEETS1 project: through three calls and from June 2011 to July 2013, 6 cruises representing 77 days at sea on Global/Ocean RVs and 13 cruises representing 93.5 days at sea on board Regional RVs will be funded and dry up the EC TNA budget.

In terms of Global/Ocean RVs, this proposal incorporates eight RVs out of which two are icebreakers (Polarstern and Hesperides). Some brand new RVs are made accessible (such as G.O. Sars, or Sarmiento de Gamboa). Only five  Global/Ocean  RVs  were made  accessible  under  EUROFLEETS1  calls  which  makes  a  60%  progress  and involves a huge budgetary effort.

Concerning the Regional RVs, EUROFLEETS2 offers fourteen vessels; about half of them are just delivered or still under construction which makes them highly attractive to scientific end users.  Access  to  ship  time  will  be  based  on  the  same  principles  of  scientific  excellence,  and  experience  gained  in EUROFLEETS1 about the TNA procedure will be fully incorporated in TNA calls for EUROFLEETS2. 

The inclusion of additional Global/Ocean RVs, including icebreakers and Regional RVs including new buildings, broadens the horizon of EUROFLEETS2. The European coverage is also widened to remote sub polar regions or Adriatic Sea. TNA1 will not focus on equipment access that will be fostered in an innovative way under TNA3.

Deliverables

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EUROFLEETS2  wants  to  develop  its  integrating  actions  further  than  highly  appreciated  enlargement  and generalisation of the Trans National Access to European RVs as described in WP8 TNA1. It is proposed to experiment  an  innovative  way  of  integrating  European  RVs  or  more  generally  European  and  international infrastructures by promoting a multi platform experiment to be used as a flag ship initiative to attract excellent international scientists and also press and communication specialists to maximise media implication and overall outreach in liaison with WP2 NA1.
The  objective  of  this  super-integration  (multi-platform)  experiment  will  be  to  allow  realisation  of  a  single multinational,  large-scale  scientific project  which  will  attract  international  scientific leaders  and  non-traditional end users on board European RVs. Such multi platform experiments are very rare as requiring a high level of anticipation and coordination: EUROFLEETS2 will be keen to put together a lot of master cards for this very attractive objective.
 
To achieve it a dedicated unique call will be launched very early in the projects‟ life to seek a scientific project which needs to mobilise a combination of EUROFLEETS TNA  vessels, nationally funded RVs, together with other appropriate scientific tools like research planes or shore infrastructures proposed with their own EC or national funding. This call will seek to identify a truly cross cutting proposal, able to prove its scientific excellence and  to  mobilise  private  and  public  funding  structures  on  top  of  EUROFLEETS  EC  funding.  Integral  to  any successful  proposal  will  be  a  significant  training  and  outreach  component  specifically  dedicated  to  the widespread dissemination and promotion of EUROFLEETS1&2 achievements.
 
High impact proposals with a significant cross cutting theme could seek to develop a multi-annual programme focused on one European location or develop a proposal which requires the deployment of several vessels and platforms with their associated equipment to a number of locations with a common theme.
TNA2 will have close links with TNA1 as they are sharing the same budget. Should the evaluation review of the received proposals (to be conducted under WP5 NA4) be not fully satisfactory in terms of scientific excellence, no proposal will be funded and TNA1 will easily use the entire EC funding.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1:
 
This WP builds on the successful TNA ship time access that was awarded as part of the EUROFLEETS1 project and on the fruitful relationship established with corresponding “exploring infrastructure” projects like EUFAR for research planes.

Deliverables

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To  complete  TNA1  and  TNA2  it  is  proposed  to  open  another  TNA  call  fully  dedicated  to  embarked  scientific equipment. Inter operability within European research fleets is still too limited that leads to a lot of duplications or idle equipments. To actively promote some corrective actions, EUROFLEETS2 will open an equipment time call to allow national scientific parties, without easy access to modern and highly performing equipment, to get access to it thanks to EC funding. A very original set of 5 European scientific equipment pieces will be made accessible with their deployment teams. Two are Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) for medium water depths (down to 2,000 m) with “small” deployment teams of some persons: they are fully adapted to service on board a lot of European Regional RVs. The fourth one is a seismic high resolution system that could be deployed from any European RV. The last ones are the two innovative 3D  HD  (for  High  Definition)  cameras  that  have  been  developed  in  cooperation  with  Fraunhofer  structure  and acquired  through  EUROFLEETS1  funding:  they  could  be  installed  on  board  numerous  European  underwater vehicles. All but one were not made accessible under EUROFLEETS1. All PIs of funded cruises will participate to a EUROFLEETS conclusive workshop to introduce their firsts results and share their feed back on funded cruises.
 
Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1
 
TNA3 will take advantage of the successful TNA ship and associated equipment time access that was awarded as part of the EUROFLEETS1 proposal. Its aims to overcome  these results by fostering European inter operability thanks  to  EC  funding  and  on  basis  of  EUROFLEETS1  recommendations  (a dedicated NA  WP  copes  with  inter operability issues). The two HD cameras made accessible have been developed thanks to EUROFLEETS1 funding within a JRA WP.

Deliverables

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The  aim  of  this  activity  is  to achieve  a  more  efficient  and  competitive  European  fleet  in  the  field  of  Regional Research Vessels (RRV), as they play a crucial role in supporting science along the European coasts. There is strong  demand  from  society  in  terms  of  preservation  of  the  marine  environment,  protection  of  the  variety  of ecosystems, implementation of new energy devises in coastal and offshore areas, etc. This requires a modern fleet in terms of its conception and design, able to provide the capability for multipurpose and interoperability of sea  operations, taking  also  into  account  the  great  variety  of  the  bathymetric  charts  of  different  regions  of the Mediterranean Sea. For this reason, design and development of RRVs is a complicated, time consuming and expensive exercise,  and  it should  be  done  by  establishing  regular exchanges/contacts between  qualified  ship design  companies,  equipment  manufacturers,  scientific  personnel  with  long  experience  from  marine  research cruises  and  experienced  research  vessel  operators  in  order  to  build  on  “best  practice”  from  existing  RRVs together with the latest developments in ship design and scientific equipment. 

In  order  to  concentrate  all  experiences,  ideas  and  knowledge  regarding  the  regional  research  vessels, the purpose of this work package is to develop generic basic designs based on guidelines for ship design for sea operations.
 
Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1
 

• NA1 – Strategic coordination vision: This activity highlighted on foreseeable evolution of existing fleets and on the perspectives for regional research vessels. The proposed activity will follow this perspective by developing a basic design for one or more of the foreseeable project.
• NA3 – Eco-responsibility and eco-design for existing and new research vessels: Results of this activity will be implemented through the task 11.3 in the innovative basic design. 
• NA4 – Operational issues – contribution to operational fluidity within European research fleets: Results of this activity will be implemented through tasks 11.2 and 11.3.

Task 11.1: Coordination – Design review panel

Task 11.2: Specifications and guidelines for Regional Research Vessels

• Sub task 11.2.1 : Noise and vibration reduction
• Sub task 11.2.2 : Bubble sweep down avoidance
• Sub task 11.2.3 : Work deck installations

Task 11.3: Innovative basic designs of Research Regional Vessels

• Sub task 11.3.1: Identification and reviewing of new technologies applicable for RV
• Sub task 11.3.2: Generic basic designs and application

Task 11.4: Innovative technologies for optimisation of existing ships

Deliverables

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This work package aims to develop key technologies and innovative functions for underwater systems as new Hybrid  ROVs  (HROVs  already  under  development  within  the  consortium  between  IFREMER  and  MARUM  in another project), in link with the exploitation of the EUROFLEETS1 results (3D HDTV smart camera and smart optical electronics). This JRA is proposed in coherency with the possibilities to test developments at sea with underwater operational platforms offered in the TNA section. Two main tasks are proposed in this JRA. 

1.  The first is related to the Optical 3D Based mapping and control strategies for AUVs, ROVs and
HROVs. 

Two subtasks will be studied and developed in this context

• The first is related to Optical 3D mapping in strong relief. This task will use the existing test beds of the partners and will valorise the EUROFLEETS1 smart mini 3D HDTV Head;
• The  second  is  related  to  the  use  of  the  3D  HD  camera  associated  to  dead  reckoning  sensors  for Dynamic positioning, target tracking and terrain following with underwater intervention.

 
2.  The second objective of the JRA would be to develop new smart LiIon and LiPo technologies for compensated batteries using gel technologies or in oil technologies. 

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1 

The JRA is based on an extensive exploitation of subsystems already developed within EUROFLEETS1. In this way the use of the 3D HDTV smart camera and optical communication devices will be the central inputs for the task 12.1 and task 12.3 within the development of future innovative underwater smart sensors. All the proposed developments  of  the  JRA  will  be  linked  within  EUROFLEETS2  to  the  TNA,  in  order  to  cross  sciences  and technologies from the need analysis to the design and integration of the technological innovations.

Task 12.1. Optical 3D Based mapping and control for AUVs, ROVs and HROVs

• Sub task 12.1.1: Optical 3D Mapping in strong relief of natural underwater scenes as habitats, coral reefs, hydrothermal vents
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.1.1: Micro-Bathymetry
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.1.2: Coverage & View Planning
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.1.3: Offline Optical 3D dense Reconstruction

• Sub task 12.1.2 Optical 3D based Dynamic positioning, target tracking and terrain or under ice terrain following
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.2.1 Fast parameter identification
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.2.2 Terrain following
  • Sub-subtask 12.1.2.3 Optical-based dynamic positioning and target following

• Sub task 12.1.3 Integration and tests on partners Platforms

Task 12.2 Development of new compensated batteries for underwater systems

• Sub task 12.2.1: Definition of pressure-neutral battery blocks
• Sub task 12.2.2 Study of pressure neutral Li-ion cells
• Sub task 12.2.3 Specification and integration studies of pressure-neutral power management system (Battery Management System-BMS)
• Sub task 12.2.4 LiIon pressure neutral battery development
• Sub task 12.2.5 LiPo pressure neutral battery development
• Sub task 12.2.6 Lab Test with demonstrators
• Sub task 12.2.7 Field test on existing underwater vehicle

Deliverables

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EUROFLEETS1  has  been  focused  in  the  interoperability  of  systems  (software  and  protocols)  to  allow  trans-national  access.  Once  these  objectives  has  been  accomplished,  the  objective  of  the  “Software  &  Tools  work package” is to enrich the information services that the vessels can offer inside the infrastructures but also to the rest  of  the  “off-board”  community  allowing  researches  and  managers  to  interact  with  the  fleet  activities.  The proposed tasks contain several innovative elements in the conceptual approach to enrich the information services  but also in the proposed technologies to implement them.

Links and continuity with EUROFLEETS1
 
EUROFLEETS1 has established the first step towards the interoperability of systems (software and protocols) on the European fleet, through the implementation of prototypes for common use (data processing, common event log  system)  and  the  analysis  of  common  standards  to  use  towards  the  compatibility  with  other  projects  of reference as SeaDataNet.
EUROFLEETS2  Software  and  Tools  tasks  will  continue  the  work  by  the  extension  of  the  implemented  tools (EARS) and progressing with the links to SeaDataNet2, and other references like R2R through the development of  on-board  and  on-shore  systems  and  services  focused  on  e-access  technologies.  The  work  done  in EUROFLEETS1 will be the basement for the e-access systems to develop in EUROFLEETS2.

Task 13.1 Developing new features in EARS

• Sub task 13.1.1 - A further integration of ontology within EARS
• Sub task 13.1.2 - Implementation of an advanced vocabularies infrastructure to be used on board and onshore
• Sub task 13.1.3 EARS helpdesk, minor releases (bug fixes) and technical specifications for major releases

Task 13.2 - Standardisation of the data acquisition process

• Sub task 13.2.1 Data acquisition
• Sub task 13.2.2 - QA/QC
• Sub task 13.2.3- Production of en-route information
• Sub task 13.2.4 - Harmonization of high level and domain specific metadata

Task 13.3 Development of direct e-access to data during survey

• Sub task 13.3.1 Shore to ship e-access– data and metadata
• Sub task 13.3.2 e-maintenance

Deliverables

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