The Ocean is still largely a great mystery for humankind.
The European Commission launched the development of the European Digital Twin of the Ocean at the One Ocean Summit in February 2022. Ursula Von Der Leyen, European Commission President, announced:
“The ocean is still largely a great mystery for humankind. That is why Europe is building a digital twin of the ocean. We are connecting our assets – like the Copernicus satellites, marine infrastructure like icebreakers, buoys and underwater drones, and high-performance computing. We will gather the raw data and turn it into real-time knowledge and longer-term predictions. We are putting the power of the digital revolution at the service of our climate. […] Thanks to the EU and its Member States, a digital twin should be operational by 2024. It will make ocean knowledge open-access, available to citizens, scientists and policymakers around the world. It will be a platform for global cooperation.”
What is the Mission?
The European Digital Twin Ocean is one of the main element of the Digital Ocean Knowledge System under the EU Mission Restore our Ocean and Waters. The European Digital Twin Ocean’s ambition is to make ocean knowledge readily available to all. From international policymakers, national governments and researchers to businesses and entrepreneurs to activists and citizens, alike, the Digital Twin Ocean will provide them with an innovative set of user-driven, interactive and decision-making tools, backed by science and data.
EDITO is the core infrastructure platform of the European Digital Twin Ocean. It offers cutting edge tools to build digital twins, support science-based decision making, and ensure maximum impact for research & innovation actions across the key objectives of the EU Mission Ocean & Waters.
Developed in the framework of the “EU Public Infrastructure for the European Digital Twin Ocean” (EDITO-Infra) project (Oct 2022-Feb 2025) and the “EDITO 2” project (Mar 2025-Aug 2028), EDITO is intended to evolve into a long-term, sustained European infrastructure that extends beyond the lifetime of these projects.
Unified data services & processing for faster, more accurate Ocean insights.
Building on existing European assets, the public infrastructure platform of the European Digital Twin Ocean upgrades, combines and integrates data and services from the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) and the Copernicus Marine Service into a single digital framework.
By building on these established European infrastructures, EDITO harmonizes high-resolution ocean observation data, forecasts, and analysis.
It also incorporates advanced computing resources, such as cloud and high-performance computing (HPC), to enable complex simulations and “what if” scenarios. This digital framework provides the foundation for the further development of the European Digital Twin Ocean.
