The Marine Knowledge Gate (EurOcean_KG) is an innovative online repository of marine research Projects profiles and results (Knowledge Outputs - information about the knowledge produced by the research activity in a non-technical language) with funding from the European Union and major national Research Funding and Performing Organisations (RFPOs) from 25 European coastal countries, as well as from Regional and International Agencies.

Note that a ‘Knowledge Output (KO)’ is the term used to describe “a unit of knowledge that has been generated out of a research project. It is not limited to de-novo or pioneering discoveries but may also include new methodologies/processes, adaptations, insights, alternative applications of prior know-how/knowledge”¹.
¹Definition accepted and used by the MarineTT; STAGES and COLUMBUS project Consortia.

PROJECTS: standard details are collected by the EurOcean Team from official sources at European level and National levels (including Regional), provided by other non-EurOcean initiatives (i.e. AquaInnova, MG4U), as well as directly provided by the Project Coordinator.
Note that, in many cases, the level of funding is unclear as projects include several sources of funding. Examples of this issue are the following:
✓ ERA-Nets are assigned to European level but projects resulting from national calls are assigned to the national level.
✓ National projects receiving European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding are assigned to the national level European – extracted from EU Funding Programmes official project repositories:

COST *	COST Actions Search
ENPI CBC*	ENPI CBC Regional: · Mediterranean Sea · Baltic Sea Region · Black Sea
ESPON*	ESPON Projects 2006 & 2013 Repositories
EUREKA	EUREKA Projects Search
EUROCORES	ESF EUROCORES Programmes Repositories
EFF*	EFF Operational Programmes Repository
ESF*	ESF Projects Repository
FP6*	CORDIS FP6 Repository
FP7*	CORDIS FP7 Repository
H2020*	CORDIS H2020 Repository
IMP Grants*	IMP Grants Repository
INTERACT*	2000 - 2006 Interact I in Knowledge and Expertise in European Programmes (KEEP)
INTERREG III	INTERREG III Projects Repositories: Strand A Strand B Atlantic Area Baltic Sea CADSES Canarias/Madeira/Acores North Sea North West Europe Northern Periphery South West Europe Western Mediterranean Strand C East Europe North Europe South Europe West Europe
INTERREG IV	INTERREG IV INTERREG IV Projects Repositories: Strand A Central Baltic Strand B Atlantic Area Azores-Madeira-Canarias (MAC) Baltic Sea Region MED North Sea Region North West Region Northern Periphery South East Europe (SEE) South West Europe (SUDOE) Strand C INTERREG IVC
INTERREG V	KEEP INTERREG V Projects Repositories
IPA CBC*	IPA CBC Regional Area Repository
LIFE*	LIFE Programme Repository
SMAP*	SMAP III (2004-2007) in Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector (EMWIS)

*Programmes official names:
COST – European Cooperation in Science and Technology
EFF – European Fisheries Fund
ENPI CBC – European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument Cross Border Cooperation
ESF – European Social Fund
ESPON – European Spatial Planning Observatory Network
FP6 – Sixth Framework Programme
FP7 – Seventh Framework Programme
H2020 – Horizon 2020
MP Grants – Integrated Maritime Policy ‘Grants for projects’
INTERACT- INTERreg - Animation, Coordination, Transfer
IPA CBC – Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance Cross-Border Cooperation
LIFE – EU’s funding instrument for the environment
SMAP – Short and Medium-term Priority Environmental Action Programme



National - directly provided by Research Funding and Performing Organisations (RFPOs) and Research Institutes; and/or extracted from corresponding official project repositories:
Belgium
    · Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) 
    · Federal Public Service - Health, Food chain safety and Environment (MILIEU) 
    · Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) 
Bulgaria
    · Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IBER-BAS) 
    · Institute of Oceanology (IO-BAS) 
    · Ministry of Environment and Waters / Black Sea Basin Directorate (MOEW / BSBD) 
Croatia
    · Croatian Environmental Agency (AZO) 
    · Croatian Science Foundation (HRZZ) 
    · Ministry of Science, Education and Sports 
Cyprus 
    · Research Promotion Foundation (RPF) 
Denmark 
    · Technical University of Denmark (DTU) 
Estonia 
    · Environmental Investment Centre (KIK) 
Finland 
    · Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) 
France 
    · French Research Institute for Exploration of the Sea (IFREMER) 
    · Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy (MEDDE) 
Georgia 
    · Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (SRNSF) 
Germany 
    · Federal Environment Agency (UBA-D) 
    · Federal Nature Conservation Agency (BfN) 
    · Thünen-Institute (TI) 
Greece 
    · Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences (MKF) 
Ireland 
    ·  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
    ·  Marine Institute (MI)
Italy 
    · Italian Ministry for the Environment and Land and Sea (IMELS) 
    · National Research Council (CNR) 
Latvia 
    ·  Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology (LIAE) 
Lithuania 
    · Coastal Research and Planning Institute (CORPI) 
    · Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
Malta 
    · Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) 
Netherlands 
    · Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) 
Norway 
    · Institute of Marine Research (IMR) 
    · National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES) 
    · Research Council of Norway (RCN) 
Poland 
    · Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT) 
    · Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MNiSW) 
Romania 
    · Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF)
    · National Research and Development Institute for Marine Geology and Geoecology (GeoEcoMar) 
Slovenia 
    · Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) 
Spain 
    · Andalusian Institute of Earth Sciences (IATC-CSIC) 
    · Center for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB-CSIC) 
    · Centro Tecnológico del Mar; Fundación CETMAR (CETMAR) 
    · Doñana Biological Station (EBD-CSIC)
    · Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) 
    · Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO)
    · Marine Science Institute of Andalusia (ICMAN-CSIC) 
    · Marine Technology Unit (UTM-CSIC) 
    · Mediterranean Center for Marine and Environmental Research (CMIMA-CSIC) 
    · Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA-CSIC) 
    · Technological Institute for the Control of the Marine Environment in Galicia (INTECMAR) 
Sweden 
    · Swedish Research Council (FORMAS) 
    · Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management (SwAM) 
United Kingdom 
    · Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) 
    · Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS)
    · The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) 
    · School of Marine Science and Technology (NCL) 
    · National Oceanography Centre (NOC) 
    · Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML)
    · Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS)
Regional 
    · Bucharest Convention Portal 
    · HELCOM Portal
Others: projects that collaborated with STAGES in the identification and collection of national funded projects; and relevant documents: 
    · BONUS FP7 project
    · DEVOTES FP7 project
    · PERSEUS FP7 'Oceans of Tomorrow' project 
    · Sea for Society (SFS) FP7
    · Spanish MSFD Report 


KNOWLEDGE OUTPUTS (KOs): information is provided by Project Coordinators through surveys from EurOcean (i.e. MarineTT, STAGES, COFASP, COLUMBUS) and non-EurOcean (i.e. AquaInnova, MG4U), as well as directly provided by the Project Coordinators.

The EurOcean_KG is regularly updated with new projects extracted from different Funding Programmes by the EurOcean Team.
The maintenance of the information is also carried out by the EurOcean Team on a regular basis and at least once a year a dedicated update request is sent to the Project Coordinators. The date of the last update is always available at the EurOcean_KG footer. Additionally, each project and KO includes specific information on the last update.
The system provides functionality for Project Coordinators to add and/or update (through the ‘Add and/or Update Data’ option) the information on Projects and/or Knowledge Outputs. New/Updated records are made visible/accessible online after validation by the EurOcean Team.
The ‘Add and/or Update Data’ option is a single step process in which the user needs to submit first via email the information on the Project and/or the information on the Knowledge Outputs, if any.

Projects were chosen on an individual basis depending on standard criteria:
✓ “It deals with marine and/or maritime research, either entirely or in certain component(s) of the project” (please refer to the Marine and Maritime Research definitions provided below extracted from the EU Strategy for Marine and Maritime Research);
✓ “The component(s) of marine/maritime research entail(s) a significant part/funding of the project”.
✓ Projects strictly focused on freshwater are not included

Marine research addresses a branch of earth science that studies the oceans and seas including their flora and fauna as well as their interaction with coastal territories and with the atmosphere. It covers a wide spectrum of scientific knowledge and phenomena such as marine organisms, ecosystems dynamics, ocean currents, plate tectonics and geology. These diverse topics involve multiple disciplines to understand the underlying processes and the complexity of their interaction. Nowadays, one of the major concerns of marine research is the preservation of marine ecosystems. Maritime research aims at technologies and innovative solutions for a better exploitation of sea and ocean resources such as the design, building and operation of vessels, harbours, oil platforms and more widely any kind of human related activity centred around sea and ocean resources (e.g. tourism, transport, etc.). Source: EU Strategy for Marine and Maritime Research (http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-08-553_en.htm) Note that where projects did not exactly match aforementioned criteria further advice was requested from the EurOcean network of experts and/or from the corresponding Project Coordinators to confirm the marine relevance of the projects.