The EC-funded COMMON SENSE project held its final event in Barcelona on the 27 January 2017, attended by project partners and important stakeholders involved in European marine monitoring. The Meeting was held in the facilities of Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona (FNOB), partner in the COMMON SENSE project. The full day meeting provided in-depth context on the challenges and importance of improving methods and available technology to monitor and protect our marine waters. Presentations on the specific results generated by the COMMON SENSE project preceded a live demonstration of the marine monitoring sensors generated by the project.

Sensors developed by the COMMON SENSE project can contribute towards increasing the availability of standardised data on: eutrophication; concentrations of heavy metals; micro plastic fraction within marine litter; underwater noise; and other parameters such as temperature, pH, pCO₂ and pressure. These cost-effective sensors directly respond to current marine monitoring challenges and will be a key tool for EU Member States in meeting their Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requirements and achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine territories.

Sergio Martinez, COMMON SENSE Scientific Coordinator, said: “Being able to validate what the COMMON SENSE project has achieved through a live demonstration was a momentous occasion for me as coordinator, but also for all the partners. Not only has COMMON SENSE shown that marine sensors can be developed which are cheaper, smaller and more user friendly than currently available sensors; they are also interoperable using the COMMON SENSE smart sensor unit and common web platform. This means the date provided by the sensors can be made available online in real-time regardless of the platform used to host the sensors; buoy, pier, even racing yachts.”

The COMMON SENSE partners have input significant effort over the past forty months to develop prototypes for innovative, next generation sensing technologies that will contribute to the implementation of the MSFD and therefore support the protection of the marine environment in Europe.

Prior to the COMMON SENSE final event, partners involved in sensor development spent the week in Barcelona testing and deploying their sensors in preparation for the demonstration. Within the COMMON SENSE project considerable focus was on deployment and testing, with partners rigorously testing all hardware developed to ensure that sensors’ performance is not inhibited by even the most changeable and challenging conditions. COMMON SENSE sensors underwent field testing in the Mediterranean, North, Norwegian, Baltic and Arctic seas.

For further information about COMMON SENSE, please contact the COMMON SENSE Scientific Coordinator Sergio Martinez (smartineznavas@leitat.org).

Demonstration of Next Generation Sensors for Advanced Real-Time Ocean Observation

The COMMON SENSE project will host a demonstration event and final partner meeting in Barcelona, Spain on the 27 January 2017.

The conference, entitled ‘Demonstration of Next Generation Sensors for Advanced Real-Time Ocean Observation’, is a unique event that marks the end of the COMMON SENSE project which was launched in November 2013. The project was funded to directly respond to the requirement for integrated and effective data acquisition systems by developing innovative sensors that will contribute to our understanding of how the marine environment functions.

Conference participants will have the opportunity to learn more about the COMMON SENSE prototypes of next generation in-situ marine sensors to deliver vital information about the ocean. In doing so, COMMON SENSE results can support the implementation of European Union marine policies such as the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

Professionals working in the marine environment and citizens curious about the status of our oceans are invited!

To view the agenda for this demonstration workshop, please click the image below:

Location: Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona (FNOB),Moll de Llevant 1, 08039 Barcelona, Spain.

Date: 27 January 2017

Time: 09.00 – 17.00

To register, please click here.

As the COMMON SENSE project comes to a successful conclusion, the results will be presented at this final workshop, along with a demonstration of the novel sensors developed and tested during the COMMON SENSE project.

Please enjoy this short video filmed on RV Oceania under the guidance of project partners The Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Science, (IOPAN).
The video features field testing of COMMON SENSE sensors. The underwater noise and microplastics sensors have been tested on board this fully equipped research vessel in various cruises throughout the past year.

You can learn more about the making of this video here: http://tv.task.gda.pl/?p=2662 (Polish language)

With the COMMON SENSE project now in its final year, impressive progress is being made towards achieving the project’s aims of developing low cost sensors that will revolutionise current marine monitoring strategies.

Representatives of the 15 COMMON SENSE partner organisations gathered at the state-of-the-art National Centre for Sensor Research (NCSR) (www.ncsr.ie) at Dublin City University (DCU), Ireland, from 6-7 April 2016 to discuss exciting results from recent sensor testing exercises. Pre-final versions of sensors, final integration steps, testing platform availability and deployment schedules were also presented.

Prof Dermot Diamond, Director of the NCSR, was keen to emphasise the remarkable breadth of the project’s vision during the Dublin meeting. He said, “Great strides have already been made towards accomplishing our ambitious objectives during the first 30 months. The final 10 months will focus increasingly on bringing the ambitions of the project together.”

The sensors being developed by COMMON SENSE will increase the supply of critically needed standardised data on: eutrophication; concentrations of heavy metals; microplastic fraction within marine litter; underwater noise; and other parameters such as temperature, pH, pCO2 and pressure. These cost-effective sensors directly respond to current marine monitoring challenges and will be a key tool for EU Member States in meeting their Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requirements and achieving Good Environmental Status (GES) of their marine territories.

Sergio Martinez, COMMON SENSE Scientific Coordinator, said: “COMMON SENSE is undoubtedly developing sensors that are beyond the state of the art, but this, in and of itself, is not the greatest achievement of the project. What we are really striving to do here is to make sensors that are low cost, robust, and can withstand tough environments. These sensors transmit data through a communications and web platform, also developed by the project, which will ensure a continuous flow of much needed information on the health of our marine environments. These are practical sensors that will benefit all European citizens by helping member states to reach and maintain GES of our waters through cost effective monitoring programmes.”

The robust nature of the sensors developed by COMMON SENSE will be put to the test during a research cruise scheduled for June 2016, which will entail a non-stop trip from Gdansk, Poland, taking in Baltic and North Sea waters, sailing as far as Tromsø, Norway. During the cruise, the microplastics sensor will be tested under the guidance of The Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Science (IOPAN). Meanwhile the eutrophication sensor will also undergo testing in June on Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)’s "Dirigibile Italia" Arctic station in Ny-Alesund (Svalbard Archipelago, Norway).

These expeditions will help fulfil the project’s commitment to testing developed hardware in extreme environments, thus ensuring high quality performance in even the most changeable and challenging conditions.
Key to the project’s vision is the ability for sensors to be integrated into a variety of vessels and platforms, so a wide diversity of ships are being employed to test sensor performance. For example, the Barcelona Foundation for Ocean Sailing (FNOB)’s boat, an 18m IMOCA 60 yacht, plays a crucial role in testing the COMMON SENSE microplastics sensor. This highly sensitive technology is capable of measuring the amount of microplastics such as PET (Polyethylene terephthalate) and polystyrene in surface water between depths of 20cm and 100cm. The sensor installed on FNOB’s boat will continuously transmit information via a wireless connection to the project’s servers during testing exercises. The entire data collection process is automatic with no intervention from the skipper necessary at any point.

COMMON SENSE recently shared its exceptional results and new sensing technologies with a diverse audience of stakeholders last month (17-19 May 2016) during a dissemination event at the Baltic Operational Oceanographic System (BOOS) Annual General Meeting in Sopot, Poland. Interactive presentations of the microplastics, underwater noise and eutrophication sensors took place as well as scientific talks and poster sessions; panel discussions; and one-to-one meetings.

For further information about COMMON SENSE, keep an eye on the project Twitter account (@COMMONSENSE_EU).

Photo Caption: Members of the COMMON SENSE consortium at the project’s partner meeting in April 2016 in Dublin, Ireland. Credit: DCU