Ostend, Belgium, 5th February 2026

Over 350 citizen scientists, data experts, cost-efficient technology developers and users from across Europe and beyond gathered this week in Ostend and online for a workshop to formally launch the Marine Citizen Science Data Network (MCSDN). The workshop, led by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) and hosted by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was organised through the EU-funded project CS-MACH1. During the workshop, participants shared challenges, solutions, best practices and successes managing, sharing and ensuring the most value possible from marine citizen science data.

Marine Citizen Science

Marine citizen science initiatives take many forms, engaging many thousands of enthusiastic and engaged individuals, associations and companies around Europe in efforts to collect observations and data on the marine environment and ecosystems. Involving non-scientists to co-design and implement data collection efforts, marine citizen science empowers the public to engage with the coastal environment and ocean, often at a very local level that is most relevant to them personally. These initiatives range from recording wildlife sightings with smartphone apps to organised beach surveys, and deployment of easy-to-use sensors within local areas and even collecting data from your surfboard or sailing boat!

The Challenge - data

The potential of citizen science to contribute to research, environmental monitoring, climate assessments, and coastal management is oftentimes limited by data challenges. Issues such as standardisation, interoperability, quality control and metadata mean that citizen science data, while collected through exc for scientific purposes or applications where trust in data, and knowing its quality or limitations is essential.

CS-MACH1 is working to overcome these challenges, supporting citizen science initiatives with new tools, guidelines, and training resources to ‘unlock’ the potential of their data to make it FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), enabling sustainable, reliable and trusted data flows into European data services, such as EMODnet, and ultimately contributing to the European Digital Twin Ocean, to support marine knowledge and decision-making across Europe.

The Marine Citizen Science Data Network

The Network will provide the forum for marine citizen science initiatives to connect with data experts, cost-efficient technology developers and users. Through the Network expertise and experience can be shared, and the new tools and support developed by CS-MACH1 can be accessed. The network will be a lasting legacy of the project, supporting marine citizen science initiatives to manage and share their data for the long-term.

Emilie Breviere, lead organiser of the workshop from SMHI, said “The potential of marine citizen science to fill essential gaps in our knowledge of the ocean and seas around Europe is immense. This workshop is a major stepping stone towards unlocking that potential, and the Marine Citizen Science Data Network will ensure the benefit can be sustained.”

Viviana Piermattei, coordinator of the CS-MACH1 project from CMCC, said “Marine citizen science is an untapped source of crucial knowledge that can contribute to climate assessments, biodiversity monitoring, forecasting and many other applications, from global to local scales. CS-MACH1 is working to tackle the challenges marine citizen science initiatives face with their data. The Marine Citizen Science Data Network is key.”

For more information, visit https://cs-mach1.eu/network

Ph. Joseph Nolan