News articles
As ATLAS draws to a close, specialist outreach partner Dynamic Earth have created a new and innovative visualisation that brings together some of the key results and data from the project in their new 6K digital planetarium facility. Dr Alastair Bruce, the planetarium manager at Dynamic Earth, has collaborated with several project partners to incorporate new high resolution bathymetry and larval track modelling results into the Digistar6 planetarium software to create a visually stunning 360° show of ATLAS data.
European Research & Innovation Days
Last week the ATLAS and iAtlantic projects were represented at the second edition of the European Research & Innovation Days, at the Science is Wonderful exhibition, which this year had gone digital! In total, the policy conference brought together over 35,000 registered participants from 188 countries in 146 sessions, and the Science is Wonderful! exhibition saw over 6,000 visits, including from schools, universities and citizens.
Exciting times for ATLAS as recently the project surpassed 100 peer-reviewed publications adding thus a new milestone in its collection of achievements. Perhaps it is even more stunning the fact that based on the manuscripts currently under review/preparation ATLAS will surpass 200 publications soon!
Exciting times as the new version of the “European Atlas of the Seas” has just been released providing the unique opportunity to all Europeans to explore our blue planet in 24 languages!
Through the assemblage of more than 285 interactive map layers, the “European Atlas…” serves uniquely the creation of custom maps on a wealth of topics such as marine ecosystem components, entertainment, and human activities (energy production, aquaculture).
ATLAS has published its “Compendium of results”, detailing the key achievements throughout the four years of the project.
The “ATLAS Compendium…”, which captures the ATLAS team’s key outputs, results and activities, contains 12 case studies, statistics and insights from the project, and outlines the steps required to further the project's ambitious goals through future research.
A dynamic and adaptable Administrative Project Manager is required to work in the ATLAS and iAtlantic Project Offices at the University of Edinburgh. ATLAS and iAtlantic are funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme to better understand deep and open ocean Atlantic ecosystems and inform policies towards their sustainable management.
Presentations from the 5th ATLAS general assembly are now on Zenodo - you can find them in agenda order at the links below. You can also find the photos from the meeting here
The Regional Government of the Azores recently declared the Luso hydrothermal vent field a Marine Protected Area fully protected from fisheries (Portaria n.º 68/2019).
We are delighted to open registration for the 5th and final ATLAS General Assembly next March 8-13 in Edinburgh! We have secured beautiful venues for the meeting and accommodation, and look forward to sharing Scottish hospitality with you. We need to know numbers earlier than in previous years, and we'd be very grateful if you could register online as soon as possible to secure one of our block booking of rooms. We have a limited number we can accommodate on the one site, so it is first come, first served.
Please register at this link. Payment of £550 includes all accommodation and catering (except Tuesday dinner) from Sunday evening's welcome reception and dinner, thorugh to Friday morning, with departure after breakfast). A whisky tasting and ceilidh on the Wednesday and Thursday evenings is also included. Please note dinner on Tuesday evening is the only meal NOT catered for. If you plan to attend the whole meeting, but are happy to share a twin room, the cost is £375. Delegates are encouraged to attend the whole meeting, but the reduced rate of £375 is also possible for part attendance. A draft agenda can be found here.
The EMSEA Annual conference brings together marine educators from all over Europe to showcase projects, share ideas and make contacts. This year's was the seventh, hosted at Expolab, a science centre on the island of São Miguel in the Azores.
Last month, the ATLAS team were invited to bring their research to the Science is Wonderful! exhibition held in Brussels. The two-day event, which attracted more than 3000 visitors, showcased some of the amazing work taking place on Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and EU-funded research and innovation projects, through hands-on experiments, live demonstrations, interactive tools and face-to-face chats with researchers.
ATLAS was represented at the 2019 European Researchers' Night in Vigo, Spain last September 27th in the museum “Casa das Artes” (House of Arts). The IEO-VIGO ATLAS team helped to bring light to the darkness of the Atlantic deep-sea, with an interactive outreach event highlighting the importance of research and conservation of Atlantic deep-sea ecosystems.
The second OpenSeaLab Hackathon took place in Ghent, Belgium, from the 4th to the 6th of September 2019 and offered marine data enthusiasts the opportunity to work in groups to develop new tools and products related to three marine themes:
- sustainable blue economy
- blue society and ocean literacy
- marine environment protection and management.
The global demand for oceanographic data, information and services is rapidly increasing. This has driven a rapid expansion in ocean data collection to support numerous sectors from science, industry and public authorities. However, to achieve a balanced and sustainable human interaction with our seas, ocean data and information needs to be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) across multiple parameters, spatial scales and resolutions.
The 3rd ATLAS science-policy meeting took place in Brussels on Wednesday 22 May 2019. The meeting aimed to link research and policy, establish an ongoing dialogue with stakeholders and potential users of ATLAS results, and to provide policymakers and stakeholders with timely and relevant scientific knowledge in support of policy developments.
We are delighted that ATLAS partner Cova Orejas and co-editor Carlos Jiménez have a new book out now. Mediterranean Cold-Water Corals: Past, Present and Future is the first Springer volume specifically dedicated to Mediterranean Cold-water coral ecosystems.