ASSEMBLE Plus

Marine biological stations have offered services and biological resources to science for more than a century. ASSEMBLE Plus will provide scientists from academia, industry and policy with a quality-assured programme of Transnational Access (TA) and Virtual Access (VA) to marine biological stations offering a wide variety of marine ecosystems, unique marine biological resources, state-of-the-art experimental and analytical facilities with integrated workflows, historical observation data, and advanced training opportunities. The goal is to stimulate European excellence in fundamental and applied research in marine biology and ecology, thereby improving our knowledge- and technology-base for the blue economy, policy and education.

Sustainability of RIs has gained a relevant position in the agenda of the EU Commission. This is illustrated by the Sustainability Survey consulted with the RI community prior to the update of the ESFRI* Roadmap in March 2016. The Marine Biological stations (MBSs) should participate in the policy debates emanating from such exercises to delineate the strategy and organizational/funding scaffold(s) accompanying RI operations. The operability of the MBSs could then be directed to meet the EU great challenges in R&D, fostering cohesive and competitive economic growth throughout European Regions. WP6 (NA 4) will align during this 4 years with the main suggestions coming out from the delineated policy, through a 3 tier approach: 1- An in depth analysis of the organization and activities of MBSs along history will be carried out to extract lessons of their resilience and capacity to evolve over time. 2- The analysis of the present situation of the MBSs, through a SWOT analysis of each single institution and the evaluation of their business models. 3- The implementation of funding seeking missions to ensure funding streams into the future of marine RIs.