ESA and CNR-ISMAR inaugurate the advanced Mediterranean Lab
- Post by: Sabrina Lodadio
- May 16, 2025
The new ADVANCED MEDITERRANEAN OPEN SCIENCE DATA ANALYSIS LAB (MeDAL) has been inaugurated on April 7th in the ESRIN Science Hub through the signature of a Memorandum of Intent between Director of ESA Earth Observation Programmes Simonetta Cheli, and Director of the Institute of Marine Science of the National Research Council (CNR-ISMAR) of Italy Mario Sprovieri. The main goal of this new initiative, which is the fruit of a long-standing collaboration between ESA and CNR-ISMAR, is to jointly advance the scientific understanding of the Mediterranean Sea, an area providing numerous vital services to people living along its coasts, but whose health is threatened by an increasing number of pressures including climate change.
Collaboration modalities entail the exchange of researchers, visiting scientists and research fellows between the two institutions, and the organisation of scientific workshops, training and education activities, with the aim to advance joint scientific studies on physical, biological and chemical processes of the changing Mediterranean Sea and develop the next generation of 4D high-resolution multi-variate, data-driven dataset of the Mediterranean Sea state. This dataset, fully open to the community, will serve as a reference and benchmark for advanced science studies addressing the Mediterranean Sea science priorities from a holistic viewpoint.
“This is a fantastic opportunity to reinforce our Science Hub as a centre of excellence for Earth system science and a catalyst for strategic collaborations with national institutions” said Cheli during the signing ceremony. “The Mediterranean is one of our key thematic priorities due to its vulnerability to hydroclimatic extremes, increasing human pressure in coastal areas, and its importance for a sustainable development in the region.”
MeDAL represents a great opportunity to foster new open science and further improve our knowledge of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a contribution to the UN Decade on Ocean Science and Sustainability, particularly to the “Science We Need for the Mediterranean Sea We Want” programme.
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