On 8-9 November 2017, the NFV Foresight Workshop took place at the Hôtel Métropole Brussels, a historical hotel that hosted in 1911 the first international Physics Solvay Congress. That same conference led in 1927 to “the most intelligent picture ever taken”, where 17 of the 29 attendees were or became Nobel Prize winners, including Einstein, Bohr, Skłodowska-Curie, Planck, Schrödinger, Heisenberg and Auguste Piccard. The latter built the Bathyscaphe Trieste, the underwater vehicle that brought his son Jacques Picard and the American mariner Don Walsh to the very depth of the Challenger Deep. Auguste Piccard inspired the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the author of The Adventures of Tintin, for the character Professor Calculus, the inventor of the “shark-proof submarine”, the famous submarine appearing on the cover of the volume 12 of the series: Red Rackham's Treasure.
The experts of the EMB identified 5 key areas of marine science, during the NFV Foresight Workshop in November 2017, to guide both the research and the science policy agendas at European and national level:
Improve knowledge of the 4-Dimensional Ocean (a volume that changes in the time dimension) and its role in the earth and climate system, including the human component;
Assess impacts of multiple and cumulative human stressors to the dynamic, non-linear and rapidly changing Ocean system;
Improve understanding and predictability of extreme events through an integrated approach, including natural hazards and climate induced impacts affecting the Ocean;
Advance capabilities in ocean technologies leading to wider developments in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence;
Foster sustainability science integrated with marine science as a core component of natural and social sciences.
The European Marine Board (EMB) is in dialogue with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to consider these 5 key areas of marine science and promote holistic and integrated approaches to develop the common Implementation Plan for the UN ‘Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)’.
Keep track on developments about Navigating the Future here and a news release can also be found here.