MI

Marine Institute

The Marine Institute is the Irish national agency for marine research, technology, development and innovation, promoting sustainable development of marine resources. Two areas of MI are involved in this project proposal, Marine Environment and Food Safety Services (MEFss) and Ocean Science and Information Services (OSIS)

The work of MEFSS is delivered through monitoring and research programmes, provision of advice and technical support. This ensures compliance with marine environmental legislation/obligations; sustainable management and development of the marine environment; and consumer protection through seafood safety monitoring/testing. Current chemical oceanography research areas include the biogeochemical cycling of nutrients and inorganic carbon in Irish waters.

The OS team is focused on the physical properties of the ocean such as waves, currents, temperature, salinity and density. OS make routine measurements from offshore buoys, ships and coastal structures to inform the understanding of the ocean around Ireland. The OS team has expertise in modelling, access to high end computer clusters and has operational models of Irish waters.

MI shares goals with other COMPASS partners, such as:

• Expanding on concepts from EU and national Spatial Data Exchange, such as EU SeaDataNet and Irish Digital Ocean, and projects to allow sharing and accessibility to data from numerous sources
• Enhancing capabilities and developing common protocols to make the measurement of essential ocean climate variables more robust.
• Modelling to give better understanding at a regional scale with a view to protecting the marine environment.