#MarineScience - The recent publication of the SEAS-ERA Legacy Report brings to a successful conclusion the four-year work programme of the SEAS-ERA Network, a consortium of 21 European marine research funding organisations (RFOs) from 18 member and associated member states.

Key SEAS-ERA deliverables included the preparation of a vision and the identification of priority research issues to be addressed in each of the three sea basins studied: the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

The Atlantic Sea Basin Working Group, led by Ireland's Marine Institute and the European Marine Board, included partners from 10 of the 11 European Atlantic seaboard countries (excluding Denmark) stretching from Norway andIceland in the north to Spain and Portugal in the south.

Key deliverables of this group included a draft Marine Research Plan for the European Atlantic Sea Basin discussion document in October 2011; a summary report on Marine Research Infrastructures in the Atlantic Region in October 2012); and Towards a Strategic Research Agenda/Marine Research Plan for the European Atlantic Sea Basin in November 2013.

“The SEAS-ERA Project has made a significant contribution to identifying agreed marine research priorities to be addressed in the Atlantic Sea Basin," said Geoffrey O’Sullivan of the Marine Institute. "This work has fed into the EU Atlantic Strategy (2011) and the Regional Atlantic Fora Workshops (2012-2013)  which in turn informed the EU Atlantic Action Plan (2014-2020).

"The priority research topics identified in the EU Atlantic Action Plan are also consistent with national marine policy (Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth) and topics identified for transatlantic EU-USA-Canada Marine Research Co-operation as defined in 2013 in the Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Co-operation.

"These priority topics provide an agenda for co-operative EU (HORIZON 2020, INTERREG-V, etc) and member state marine research funding programmes over the period 2014 to 2020”.

For further information on the SEAS-ERA project and to download SEAS-ERA reports visit www.seas-era.eu.