Egypt is among 14 countries in the North Africa and Mediterranean benefitting from an EU funded project titled “ODYSSEA - transforming Mediterranean Sea data into valuable innovative information services.” 28 partners from all over the basin are involved in the project implementation.

 

Despite the project is keen about the Mediterranean in Egypt, River Nile is taken as main target to set an observatory system for data collection and this part will be conducted by Arab Network for Environment and Development (RAED), a sister organization of Egypt National Discourse Forum (EgNDF) and its secretariat is hosted in the same place.

 

 

ODYSSEA aims to develop, operate and demonstrate an interoperable and cost-effective platform that fully integrates networks of observing and forecasting systems across the Mediterranean basin. 

 

The platform will collect data from the many databases maintained by agencies, public authorities and institutions of Mediterranean EU and non-EU countries, integrating existing earth observation facilities and networks in the Mediterranean Sea.  

 

EU awards €8.4 million to ODYSSEA Project for Developing and Deploying Integrated Observatory Systems in the Mediterranean Sea. 

 

The collaborative international project will develop a platform that will integrate existing data with information generated by coastal observations, new and existing sensors at sea, oceanographic models and mobile apps. 

 

In Kavala, Greece, the European Union (EU) has awarded the international ODYSSEA consortium €8.4 million to develop an interoperable and cost-effective platform that fully integrates networks of observation and forecasting systems across the Mediterranean basin. 

 

The ODYSSEA platform will collect information from databases maintained by agencies, public authorities, research institutions and universities. The 4.5-year project is aimed at making Mediterranean marine data easily accessible and tailored to the needs of multiple maritime sector end-users. These include wind farms, marine culture, ocean energy, oil and gas extraction, undersea cables, ports and shipping, policy and others.

 

ODYSSEA will develop a network of coastal observatories, deploying novel in-situ sensors at sea, employing oceanographic modeling and integrating existing mobile apps for citizen and scientist networks. It will also apply advanced algorithms to organize, homogenize and integrate large quantities of data to provide tailored information services. 

 

The ODYSSEA platform will provide, through a public portal, on-demand information services, including forecasts. The project will include capacity building to maximize exploitation of the information services for creating business and research opportunities across the Mediterranean Sea basin.

 

“We have identified a real need to harmonize existing earth observing systems operating around the Mediterranean and upgrading their operational oceanographic capacities,” said Prof. Georgios Sylaios from DUTH, who coordinates ODYSSEA. “The project will support EU policy implementation, thus improving interoperability in monitoring and fostering blue growth jobs creation.” 

 

ODYSSEA is comprised of 28 partner organizations from 14 EU and non-EU countries across the Mediterranean. The consortium includes research institutes, universities, policy makers, non-governmental organizations and SMEs.  ODYSSEA held its opening conference in the city of Kavala, Greece June 6–8, 2017.

For more information, please contact: Mr.Mr. Essam Nada , the Egy-NDF National Technical  Support Expert                                                        

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