The BioEcoOcean consortium gathered for the third in-person meeting in Sopot, Poland

Our consortium gathered at the Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot, Poland, for the third in-person annual meeting featuring the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) Biology & Ecosystems Panel members, sister projects ObsSea4Clim & BioGeoSea, GOOS, OCG, OceanOPS (WMO-IOC/UNESCO), and IOC - Ocean Best Practices System representatives, and the BioEcoOcean's External Expert Advisory Board members. The meeting was held from 29 September to 01 October 2026.

• Day 1
  We kicked off with an overview of BioEcoOcean, exchanged insights with sister projects (ObsSea4Clim and BioGeoSea), and discussed the GOOS biodiversity strategy. We explored community engagement across key areas from EOV leads (seabirds, mangroves, sea turtles, and EOVs & EBVs) and held a facilitated workshop using the OCEANIS framework to define practical steps for advancing EOV use and uptake.
• Day 2
  We mapped supporting resources for OCEANIS and held joint focus sessions on communication and implementation of BioEco EOVs with our WP6 team and GOOS Comms. In the afternoon, we discussed policy dialogues (Ocean Pact, Act, OceanEye) in preparation for our September 2027 policy briefing, followed by internal DEC updates, data management, and our internal BioEcoOcean General Assembly covering upcoming milestones/deliverables, Key Exploitable Results (KERs), and long-term project targets.
• Day 3
  Our program continued with the WP3 & WP4 Focal Living Labs poster session, the Marine Organic Carbon (MOCA) workshop, and dedicated sessions on improving readiness, and IOC - Ocean Best Practices System.

We would like to thank all the participants for their contributions, dedication, energy, and collaborative spirit! 

Group photo: Tomasz Jankowski (IO PAN)

Photos from the sessions: Dominik Krzymiński (IO PAN)