Island on the sea

SEADITO

The EU Mission i.e., ‘Restore our Ocean and Waters’ (Mission Ocean) aims to protect and restore the health of our ocean and waters (hydrosphere) through research and innovation, citizen engagement, and blue investments by 2030. An important cross-cutting action to support this mission is the creation of the European Digital Twin Ocean (EU DTO), a highly accurate digital model of the Earth on a global scale. Therefore, improved and co-created maritime-related social-ecological data and models are needed to integrate the human dimension into EU DTO to better support adaptive management and policy goals for the coastal and marine realms.

Funding programme​

Horizon Europe call HORIZON-MISS-2023-OCEAN-01-8

Implementation period​

March 2024 – March 2027

Key Objectives

  • Implement interoperable social-ecological spatial decision-support tools for the EU DTO and other DTO platforms using a multi-actor approach.
  • Develop integrated models and indicators to assess environmental change, policy options, management decisions, and associated uncertainties.
  • Advance social-ecological modelling by incorporating qualitative, cultural, and behavioural factors, including their uncertainties.
  • Ensure long-term, reliable access to spatially explicit data through FAIR principles and persistent data protocols.
  • Establish participatory processes for stakeholder engagement and what-if scenario analysis to support related initiatives, including Mission Blue Parks and Mission Lighthouses.

 

Main results

The SEADITO project delivers:  

  1. Solutions for marine social-ecological modelling, enabling seamless integration into the DTO framework while addressing system complexity.
  2. Interoperable transdisciplinary data and integrated models across spatial and temporal scales, including uncertainty assessment and clear visualisation of workflows and results for stakeholders and decision-makers.
  3. Multi-actor social-ecological models to assess the impacts of environmental change, human pressures, and policies on ocean health, the blue economy, and societal well-being.
  4. Improved understanding of complex social-ecological systems to support better management, informed policymaking, and the avoidance of unintended negative outcomes (e.g., job losses, overfishing, reduced ecosystem services).

 

Role of PAP/RAC

PAP/RAC is involved as a partner in the implementation of the case study at Saronikos Golf in the Mediterranean (led by HCMR) and in the pan-European case (led by IHCantabria). The aim is to investigate the socio-ecological effects of several opposing human activities on the marine ecosystem services for building a sustainable blue economy.

 

Partnership

Lead partner: 

Aalborg University (AAU): Denmark

Partners:

Environmental Hydraulics Institute of Cantabria (IHCantabria) 

Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (NLS FGI)

Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE)

SINTEF AS (SINDIG)

SINTEF Ocean AS (SOCEAN)

Latvian Institute of Aquatic Ecology (LIAE)

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW)

University of Girona (UdG)

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Hellenic Centre of Marine Research (HCMR)

Centre for Economic Development, Transport, and the Environment of Southwest Finland (Var-ELY)

GALP Costa Brava (GALP)

City of Oslo (CO)

Priority Actions Programme Regional Activity Centre (PAP/RAC)

Visit the project website

Partners

Featured publications

Explore key reports, guidelines and knowledge products that support sustainable coastal and marine management

October 28, 2025

SEADITO Partner meeting in Santander

Read more

SEADITO Partner meeting in Santander

October 28, 2025

Réunion des partenaires de SEADITO à Santander

Read more

SEADITO Partner meeting in Santander