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Welcome back to the Echo!
It has been a few months since the last issue, and there has been quite a lot happening since then, so read on to find out the latest news and upcoming opportunities.
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 AtlantECO highlights
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AtlantECO meeting
Policy event and workshop in Portugal
At the beginning of October, AtlantECO co-delivered a policy session together with Mission Atlantic and AANChOR sister projects. The event, entitled All-Atlantic Marine Ecosystems: A science to policy event was held in Lisbon on October 3rd, 2022. You can watch the recording here.
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For the second part of the week, a scientific workshop was held in Sesimbra, where many presentations (access them here) and discussions (watch the recordings) to plan for our second period of the project took place. Our hosts at SPI did a wonderful job of organising the venue, meals and a visit to the local fishermen market!
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AtlantECO review
Period 1: results are in!
The first AtlantECO periodic review took place on 19th October 2022, and after 7 hours of presentations, questions and discussions, we have now received the report. Our external reviewers were Alice Newton (UAlg, Portugal), Andrea Belgrano (SLU, Sweden) and Paul Tett (SAMS, United Kingdom).
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Overall the feedback is very positive and we should all be proud of our achievements so far!
We will work on addressing the recommendations made for our Period 2 activities, starting with a dedicated discussion during the next Steering Committee to take place on 18th January 2023.
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AtlantECO flagships
Mission Microbiomes: it's a wrap!
The first flagship expedition of AtlantECO, Mission Microbiomes of the Tara Ocean Foundation, ended in October 2022. After 22 months sampling the South Atlantic Ocean, the Tara schooner was welcomed back to its home port in Lorient on October 15th. With more than 25,000 samples collected, the work is not stopping here though, as months of sample and data analysis awaits us all!
Congratulations to all involved, and a massive thank you to all the team at FTO who made sure this expedition was a success!
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AtlantECO flagships
Alpha Crucis: Exploring the microbiomes in the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
As part of the AtlantECO flagship cruises, surveys for sampling planktonic microorganisms were conducted in partnership with the SAMBAR project, which aimed to investigate the inter annual variability of the heat content and the meridional transports across the South Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (SAMOC).
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The campaign covered the coordinates 27.5° - 34.55°S, 50.5° - 44.3°W.
XBTs and CTD casts deployment and redeployment of PIES/CPIES moorings on the seafloor and sampling of marine microbiomes were performed between 28th July and 11th August 2022 on board R/V Alpha Crucis with 15 scientists and 18 crew members.
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AtlantECO flagships
RSS Discovery: AMT-30
The next Atlantic Meridional Transect expedition (AMT) will take place in February-March 2023, and conduct key AtlantECO genomics protocols along and across the Atlantic Ocean (45°N-45°S) including the north and South Atlantic gyres. For this occasion, a berth has been reserved for an Early Career Researcher to join the expedition. After receiving 12 applications from a wide range of backgrounds and motivations, we are pleased to announce that Mayibongwe Buthelezi from the University of Pretoria will be joining the AMT-30.
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AtlantECO sampling
All-Atlantic Ocean Microbiome Sampling pilot phase
The pilot phase for the All-Atlantic Ocean Microbiome Sampling is currently ongoing, it was launched on September 21st and will end on December 21st. The pilot phase aims to establish the coordination role of the regional nodes and engage with marine labs around the Atlantic basin, with an official launch of the sampling programme planned for 2023.
As part of the pilot, on the 21st September, just in the austral vernal equinox, the Brazilian AtlantECO team spread throughout the 8,000 Km coast, sailed to the sea to join the global initiative of the All-Atlantic Sampling.
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On board the Sailboat ECO, UFSC members from the AtlantECO, Mission Atlantic and iAtlantic Projects, All-Atlantic sister projects, carried out the sampling in the Arvoredo no- take Marine Protected Area, on the southern coast.
Sampling was carried out along the entire Brazilian Atlantic coast from Belém, close to the Equator line to Rio Grande in the subtropical seas. The following institutions took part in the Ocean Sampling Day: UFSCar (general coordination with UFSC), UFPA, UFRA, UFC, UFRN, UFRPE, UFPE, UFSB, IEAPM, USP, UNIFESP and FURG. All teams from the different institutions were engaged in field work, collected and pre-processed the samples following the same international protocols.
Ocean Sampling initiatives 9as part of the OSD) have been around since 2014 in all oceans, but this is the first time that researchers from Brazil have joined the initiative. This year's campaign inaugurated Brazil's commitment to this sampling effort and formed a qualified team for the coming years.
Congratulations to the Brazilian team for this amazing effort and see you in 2023 for a second round!!
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AtlantECO synergies
5 projects in one event!
Between the 9th and 11th of November 2022, the All-Atlantic sister projects AtlantECO, Aquavitae, Mission Atlantic, iAtlantic and Triatlas attended the “19th UFSC’s Research, Education, Outreach and Innovation Week (SEPEX)", at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), with a dedicated booth called “The South Atlantic Ocean''. The exhibition was organized by the AtlantECO Team, welcoming students from junior to high schools and universities, UFSC’s students and workers, most of them with friends and families.
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SEPEX is the most important Science and Outreach Fair of the region. The booth was manned by undergraduate and postgraduate students from Oceanography, Biological Sciences and Ecology as well as general collaborators of AtlantECO.
Led by the AtlantECO team, all the sister projects organised the exhibition with experiments, living creatures, microscopes, skeletons and a plastic exhibition. It was a resounding success, especially for engaging with the children.
Congratulations again to the Brazilian team for organising this exhibition, creating strong links with our sister projects and for raising awareness on these important issues!
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 Opportunities
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Job adverts
EMBL is recruiting
There are three open positions advertised as follows
- Planetary Biology Biocurator/Bioinformatician, 2 years contract, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany, closing date 16/12/2022. Direct link with AtlantECO.
- Bioinformatician MGnify, 3 years contract, EMBL-EBI Hixton, United Kingdom. Closing date 06/01/2023. Direct link to AtlantECO.
- Bioinformatician Lerverhulme, 3 years contract, EMBL-EBI Hixton, United Kingdom. Closing date 06/01/2023.
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Horizon Europe
2023-2024 Work Programme published
The Work Programme for Cluster 6 (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment) of Horizon Europe has been published on the 6th of December. Many relevant opportunities exist to apply and submit proposals responding to the call topics.
The EC information days on Cluster 6 will take place on December 13th and 14th.
Have a look at the agenda and register for the event (bottom of the page).
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Call for ship-time, Polar research
ARICE-PONANT 2023-2024
As part of its Ships and Platforms of Opportunity Programme, the ARICE project has opened its third call for ship-time proposals to access the Polar Expedition Ship Le Commandant Charcot. While the first two calls offered ship-time for cruises in the Arctic Ocean, this third call will allow scientific teams to access the Southern Ocean in the 2023-2024 Antarctic season and beyond.
Selected projects will be able to carry out research within any field of polar science, including marine-based and terrestrial sciences (i.e., including geology and biology in the North Antarctic Peninsula, Bellingshausen Sea, Margarite Bay, Weddell Sea, Snowhill Island, Charcot Island and Peter 1st Island, Svalbard or the Canadian Peninsula), and social sciences (restrictions may apply).
Submissions are due by December 20, 2022 at 12:00 CET.
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 Other Echos on the radar
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Opportunities for synergies
New projects starting
A wave of new projects with which we may want to create links have recently started, these include:
- GES4SEAS: Achieving Good Environmental Status for maintaining ecosystem SErvices, by ASsessing integrated impacts of cumulative pressures
- OCEAN:ICE: Ocean Cryosphere Exchanges in ANtarctica: Impacts on Climate and the Earth system
- EPOC: Explaining and Predicting the Ocean Conveyor
- Marine SABRES: Marine Systems Approaches for Biodiversity Resilience and Ecosystem Sustainablity
- MARBEFES: MARine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning leading to Ecosystem Services
- BIOcean5D: Marine Biodiversity Assessment and Prediction Across Spatial, Temporal and Human Scales
- BlueRemediomics: Harnessing the marine microbiome for novel sustainable biogenics and ecosystem services
- MARCO-BOLO: MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations
- OBAMA-NEXT: Observing and Mapping Marine Ecosystems - Next Generation Tools
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Mission Ocean and Waters Charter
Invitation to endorse the charter
The Mission Ocean and Waters Charter was launched on 30 June 2022 in the context of the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon.
With this Charter, the European Commission calls on governments and public authorities, businesses, civil society, financiers and donors as well as science and researchers from Europe and around the world to join our great Mission by contributing with concrete actions to mobilise resources and enhance cooperation to deliver on the EU Mission: Restore our Oceans and Waters objectives.
The Charter is open and non-binding throughout the duration of the Mission.
Interested authorities and organisations, public and private entities, can endorse the Charter by submitting their own actions contributing to the restoration of our oceans and waters and to the sustainability of the blue economy.
Please note that AtlantECO was invited to endorse the charter as a relevant project. We can confirm that we have endorsed the charter earlier this month.
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 Calendar & events
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AtlantECO CPO closure
16/12/22 - 09/01/2023
Just letting everyone know that the Central Project Office, i.e. Eloïse, will be on leave during this period and enjoying some family time away from the computer.
Hopefully there won't be any urgent items to deal with but in case there is, please send a message on WhatsApp (number is at the bottom of each AtlantECO email).
And importantly, have a great holiday everyone, see you in 2023!
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AtlantECO meetings: Save the date
03-10 October 2023 | Florianopolis, Brazil
The next GA of AtlantECO, GA23, will take place in Florianopolis, Brazil, at Vila Fatima. The programme is underdevelopment and will be presented at the next Steering Committee in January 2023. If you want to join the organising committee, please make sure to let us know!!
We will provide all practical information in due time, but in the meantime, please block those dates in your calendar.
We look forward to catching up with everyone!
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 Tips & reminders
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Upcoming or due deliverables
Deliverables
- D2.1- AtlantECO BASE 1. ETHZ, Due M25, Sept.22 (work is ongoing)
- D1.3- Information in cumulative expenditure incurred year 2. SZN, Due M28, Dec. 22 (information requested to all partners on 06/12/22)
- D5.2- Report on the All-Atlantic interactome. CNRS, due M30, Feb. 23
- D5.4- Report on the results of all experiments performed. UP, due M30, Feb. 23
- D10.5- GEONODE geospatial platform. SBE, due M30, Feb. 23
- Deliverables D2.4, D4.3, D4.6, D4.9, D6.2 and D10.3 all due at M36, Aug 23.
Please check the full tracker for all details and to ensure you are on track with Milestones (update the file as needed)
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