There are several beneficial aspects deriving from the use of data to boost many marine-related economic sectors. Economic growth in a knowledge-based society goes in parallel with the process of extracting essence from data, together with value addition by a wide range of downstream services that are fitting to the user needs, especially in the local scale application scenarios. At its recent Forum held in Brussels, the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) prepared the setting to consolidate its strategy and implementation plan by the direct feedback from key players and users. The main message is that Blue Growth is simply not possible without sustained ocean observations. We therefore face an interesting win-win scenario where ocean observations for environmental management, for coastal sea health monitoring and for marine safety & surveillance could also serve, in their non-confidential elements, to feed the research and economic sectors for added value and societal benefits at no additional data acquisition costs.

Local scale ocean observing infrastructures run by national entities are needed to fit the demands on a country basis. Such national systems will bring autonomous benefits, but will need to fit and add value to the overarching regional and European marine core data networks and services like the COPERNICUS Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS), and the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). The synergy and merging of ocean information at national and regional scales provides the framework to capitalize and share the benefits of national synergies and of transboundary cooperation, within the ambit of a cost effective, sustained integrated marine observation system of systems that is genuinely fit-for-purpose and without duplication of efforts and investment.

The Physical Oceanography Research Group held a half-day seminar to present the success of the recent CALYPSO and CALYPSO Follow On projects, and to share the targets set by the new INTERREG V-A Italia Malta CALYPSO South initiative within this evolving scenario. With the participation of expert speakers from Europe and the U.S., the seminar showcased the application and valorisation of ocean data in its wide range of usage, considering different scales from global ocean domains down to the local coastal seas, and from long term variability and climate change assessments down to operational scale day to day services and applications.

The seminar also included presentations about other data sources, such as the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service. It highlighted the importance of networking between European scientists so as to share data collected through different platforms, and thereby create meaningful ocean synthesis products.

The seminar closed with concluding remarks by the project leader, Professor Aldo Drago, who expressed his belief in the fruitful collaboration between partners, stakeholders and the general public to improve safety of marine navigation in the Central Mediterranean.

13:15	Registration
13:30	Welcome and Brief on the Seminar Aldo Drago, Project Coordinator, PO. Res. Grp., University of Malta
13:40	Address by Prof. Alfred Vella, Rector, University of Malta
13:50	Address by the Hon. José A. Herrera, Minister for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change
14:05	Introducing CALYPSO South Aldo Drago, Project Leader, PO. Res. Grp., University of Malta
14:30	A 20-year History of Middle Atlantic Bight HF Radar Operations Serving Science & Society Glenn Scott, Center for Ocean Observing Leadership, Rutgers University, USA
14:50	CALYPSO South: Pushing coverage and value of CODAR HF radar observations & derived products in Malta and Sicily Jorge Sanchez and Andres Alonso Martirena, QUALITAS REMOS, Spain
15:10	Sea surface currents in the Sicily Channel: a comparative study based on AIS, HF Radar, Satellite and Model-Derived Data Daniele Ciani, Marie-Hélène Rio, Rosalia Santoleri, Salvatore Marullo, CNR-ISAC, Italy
15:30	Coffee break
15:50	Evaluation of Ocean Syntheses: a COST Action to improve our knowledge about ocean syntheses and reanalyses Aida Alvera Azcarate, AGO-GHER, Université de Liège, Belgium
16:05	CMEMS: Products and Services for marine applications Anthony Galea, PO. Res. Grp., University of Malta
16:20	Ocean monitoring and reporting activities of the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service Karina von Schuckmann, MERCATOR OCEAN, France
16:35	PORTO Meteo Network: Improving safety with weather monitoring Adam Gauci, PO. Res. Grp., University of Malta Fritz Farrugia, Transport Malta
16:50	HF radar wave measurements in the Malta-Sicily Channel - Targeting users now and in the future Arianna Orasi, ISPRA, Italy
17:05	Integration of Web Application for SAR activities Salvatore Aronica, CNR-IAMC, Italy
17:20	Data filling and short-term forecasting of HF sea currents by means of ARMA models Fulvio Capodici, DICAM, University of Palermo, Italy
17:35	HF radar data for assessments of distribution and abundance of egg and larvae of small pelagic fish in the Malta-Sicily Channel Salvatore Mazzola, CNR-IAMC, Italy