The European Marine Board Spring Plenary took place in Brest this week. As a result of the ExCom elections held in the closed session on 14 May, Jan Mees (FWO/VLIZ, Belgium) was elected as new chair of the European Marine Board. Erlend Moksness (IMR, Norway), was elected as vice-chair. Kostas Nittis (HCMR, Greece) and Peter Haugan (UiB, Norway) stepped down as, respectively, chair and vice-chair of the Board after completion of their full three-year terms. The open session held on the afternoon of 14 May, featured presentations on the EMB working group on deep-sea research (by Prof. Alex Rogers, University of Oxford, UK), the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans, POGO (by Sophie Seeyave, Assistant Director), EuroMarine (by Catherine Boyen, Vice-Chair) and IPCC AR5 (by Michael Schulz, MARUM, Germany). Yves-Marie Paulet updated the meeting on the activities of the Uiversité de Bretagne Occidentale and Universités Marines (the French Marine University Consortium). Permanent EMB plenary observers, IOC and European Commission were represented by Wendy Watson Wright (IOC Executive Secretary) and Ana Teresa Caetano (DG R&I Marine Unit Project Officer), with Ana Teresa Caetano presenting an update on Horizon 2020. The European Marine Board gratefully acknowledges the warm and impeccably organized support to the meeting by the plenary hosts, Universités Marines, represented on the Board by Yves-Marie Paulet (Director of IUEM, UBO, France) and supported by Dominique Simon (international project coordinator at IUEM). UBO President, Pascal Olivard, and Vice-President of Bretagne Region Council, Pierre Karleskind, welcomed the Board at the reception in the city hall of Brest, organized on the occasion of the EMB plenary. Featured on the picture: EMB delegates, secretariat team, and plenary observers, 14 May, Brest. Credit: Sebastien Hervé/UBO. View meeting pictures here