SEADOTs Showcased at Blue-Cloud 2026 Joint Workshop During OCEANS 2025 Conference
Between 16 - 19 June, 2025, the SEADOTs project had the opportunity to take centre stage at the Blue-Cloud 2026 Joint Workshop, held in the context of the OCEANS 2025 Conference. The workshop, co-organised by the EU-funded Iliad and Blue-Cloud 2026 projects, brought together leading initiatives under the Horizon Europe umbrella that are contributing to the integration of socio-ecological models into the Digital Twin Ocean (DTO).
The presentation was delivered by our colleague Charalampos Ipektsidis from Netcompany, one of the key partners in the SEADOTs consortium. The project’s methodology centres on applying Elinor Ostrom’s Social-Ecological Systems (SES) framework—an interdisciplinary model that integrates economic, ecological, and social data. By anchoring digital ocean models within this theoretical structure, SEADOTs aims to increase their accuracy, contextual relevance, and policy utility across diverse marine governance settings.
The presentation also introduced the project’s three Demonstrator Digital Ocean Twins (DOTs), each of which is designed with a distinct socio-ecological lens. These DOTs are being co-created with local communities and stakeholders, ensuring that each twin responds to the specific needs, values, and environmental challenges of its region. By aligning advanced modelling tools with participatory governance, SEADOTs seeks to empower communities with data-driven decision-making tools that are both scientifically robust and socially grounded.
A key takeaway from the session was the critical importance of interoperability in ocean data and model integration. As SEADOTs and its sister projects work with vast arrays of data and predictive analytics tools, ensuring semantic alignment and standardised documentation across platforms is essential. Interoperability will not only enhance collaboration between DTO projects, but also facilitate the scalability and long-term sustainability of digital twin ecosystems.