Canada aims to join research consortium for Atlantic ocean observation system

Canada has been invited to join AtlantOS, a large European consortium that is bidding for up to €20 million from the European Union's Horizon 2020 program to establish the Atlantic Ocean's first integrated ocean observation system. The bid for Canadian participation in the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing System (IAOOS) is being led by the Marine Environmental, Observation, Prediction and Response Network (MEOPAR) — a traditional Network of Centres of Excellence.

MEOPAR's immediate challenge is to align the relevant domestic funders to support Canada's inclusion in the program — borne out of the Galway initiative on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation launched less than a year ago — and work with other ocean research organizations to ensure industry participation.

Like so many areas of S&T, however, ocean research in Canada is hobbled by the lack of overarching strategies and coordination amongst research organizations and funding sources.

The recently released expert panel report on ocean science by the Council of Canadian Academies concluded that scientists face formidable challenges in coordinating activities and pooling resources to support Canada's considerable expertise in the field. Canada ranks among the top countries in the output and impact of scholarly ocean science papers and has several world class systems for ocean observation and monitoring

Dr Doug Wallace, scientific director MEOPAR and holder of the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Ocean Science and Technology (CERC Ocean), is leading the charge to secure Canadian participation. He says MEOPAR is ideally positioned to play such a role and has the flexibility to act quickly. Participation in AtlantOS is critical to ensure that Canadian interests and research opportunities are well represented over the course of the research program.

"It's a great opportunity and for MEO-PAR a great challenge … There's potentially high benefit to accessing EU expertise and equipment as this information is highly relevant to Canada," says Wallace. "The key is to find multisectoral cooperation and work effectively between the research community and industry. The US is gearing up for this and Canada needs to as well … There's money in the system right now to coordinate and initiate a response."

The initiative is designed to build on existing capacities on both sides of the Atlantic to enhance understanding of ocean processes at the level of the entire basin while reducing the costs of in-situ ocean observation. Expected impacts include increased temporal and geographic coverage of observational data in the Atlantic Ocean and development of standardized process models and forecast systems.

MEOPAR has produced a white paper — A Strategy for a Canadian Response to the Galway Alliance's call for an Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing System — which will be officially presented at the Oceans 14 conference in St John's NF in September. In the meantime a draft version has been shared with US and European investigators.

"Addressing these gaps (in vision, coordination and information) is essential if Canada is to meet the growing needs of ocean science with limited resources, and make best possible use of existing |capacities to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities of ocean science." — CCA Report on ocean science

Also being explored is the establishment of a multisectoral umbrella organization to guide coordination and support of Canada's Atlantic Ocean and coastal regions. If successful, the approach could be replicated for ocean research activities and observation systems on the Pacific and Arctic coasts.

"Funding is the biggest challenge. Research funding is primarily academic and we can build on what DFO (Department of Fisheries and Oceans) is doing," says Wallace. "Then there's the challenge of industry involvement, especially SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises). Participating EU companies will receive 100% of their research costs and overhead. We don't have this in Canada and there's no mechanism to integrate academic and government research efforts."

Also missing is financial support for infrastructure, data management, field work and support for industry to demonstrate mobile technologies.

"Innovation in the ocean technology world comes out of groups of people trying to do difficult things together. That's where the ideas are developed and exchanged, — an intellectual environment where ideas bubble up to the surface and are tested" says Wallace. "The technology component needs to be integrated. For instance, the need for information and ocean measurements and predictions in the offshore oil and gas industry. Industry is already collecting data but it could integrate it with academic and government measurements."

MEOPAR is working closely with the Dalhousie Univ-based Institute for Ocean Research Enterprise (IORE) to promote partnerships with Canada's considerable expertise in ocean research (much of it located in Halifax) and find ways to engage industry so that economic benefits can be realized.

Jim Hanlon, CEO of IORE, formerly called the Halifax Marine Research Institute, says Atlantic Canada has a long tradition of strong links between industry and government laboratories, particularly those of DFO.

"Companies have enjoyed rich relationship with government labs and there's been huge IP (intellectual property) transfer but there's very little interaction between companies and universities," says Hanlon . "We need to demonstrate the value of this program to Canadian industry. The bridge is being built."

Supported by a core grant of $350,000 annually from the Nova Scotia government, IORE's mission is to build partnerships to help create sustainable economic activity from the region's ocean research. It also serves as an outreach vehicle for CERC Ocean .

Wallace says that while MEOPAR can initiate Canada's participation, there needs to be an alignment of funding streams. That could include DFO's reduced but still significant research efforts and programs such as the $5-million Ventilation, Interactions and Transports Across the Labrador Sea (VITALS) program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

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