Preliminary report for long-term scientific plan

Abstract

One goal of JERICO-DS WP1 consists of identifying the main scientific needs and societal problems that are most important for each nation. The idea is to provide preliminary indications of the national desired requirements and characteristics in the scientific design phase of the JERICO-RI. The subsequent analysis of these desiderata focuses on the common problems and needs, underlining which ones may be  complementary among different nations. This process ensures the bidirectional approach, that is the continuous exchange and update of scientific strategies and needs, from the global to the national scale and vice versa. The same process intends to integrate the regional viewpoint, proper of the JERICO-S3 project, with the national viewpoint introduced by JERICO-DS. This Deliverable D1.1 contributes to this general goal by: 1. listing societal needs within specific Scientific Topics and Integrated Themes; 2. identifying common societal needs based on their priority and implementation levels at the national level; 3. formulating preliminary suggestions to consider the national scale in the JERICO strategy. D1.1 is a preliminary contribution of Deliverable D1.3 entitled "Final report for a long-term scientific plan: a mutually beneficial strategy to bridge national and EU landscape" which incorporates recommendations from D1.2 - "First elements to unify environmental RI efforts at national level: national scientific expectations across RIs (specific goals, expertise, data)" and represents the main outcome of the whole WP1. The enumeration/classification of the societal needs within specific Scientific Topics and Integrated Themes brought to a list of six Scientific Topics and three Integrated Themes. The list was put forth considering the important connections with the KSCs of the JERICO community (Grémare et al., 2021) as well as with the MSFD descriptors and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Inside each  Topic and Themes several societal needs were also identified together with their scales (multinational/regional, national and local) to enforce the JERICO-DS bi-directional approach. The number of societal  needs varies within each Topic/Theme from a maximum number of eight to a minimum of two. The identification of common societal needs was based on their priority and implementation levels at the national level collected through a survey filled by National Representatives (NRs). Main results from the survey indicated that nations shared different high-priority needs. These include: ● non-indigeneous species, ● aquaculture, ● climate change, ● localised measures/protection from marine litter, ● riverine inputs, ● impact/effects of storms and floods; which were indicated at least by 13 out of 14 nations. With the exception of oil spill dynamics and marine forecast, many relevant societal needs demanded more implementation for most of the nations, with the inclusion of those related to MSFD descriptors. The formulation of preliminary suggestions to consider the national scale in the JERICO strategy was based on the development of specific Data-to-Products Thematic Services (D2PTS) to address the common high-priority national societal needs. This is thought to be strategic and directly linked to Pillar#1, "Fostering societal impact for a larger community of stakeholders" (Grémare et al., 2021). These services are envisioned in the directions taken by the four pilot-focused regional/thematic services identified in the JERICO-S3 WP7 and are also important to sort out the overlapping areas with established RIs