The ocean’s biodiversity provides us with vital services: it sustains 32 out of the 33 known animal phyla and supports the livelihoods of over three billion people. These services are endangered by human pressures and climate change. To understand the pressures on the ocean and manage resources in a sustainable manner requires comprehensive, accurate and timely data.
The Copernicus Marine Service produces ocean monitoring products by integrating satellite and in situ ocean observations with marine models. However, the models currently applied are restraining the provision of information on biodiversity and marine food-webs.
Our vision is to build new and innovative models that will accurately simulate the marine ecosystem, including higher trophic level organisms and the benthic environment. NECCTON will use state-of-the-art techniques and incorporate new data streams to produce a fully integrated modelling system that more closely represents the functioning of the marine ecosystem.
Integrating our systems into the Copernicus Marine Service will enable a greater number of more reliable ocean products to be delivered to support biodiversity conservation and food security.
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The overall objective of NECCTON is to enable CMEMS to deliver products that inform marine biodiversity conservation and food resources management, by fusing innovative ocean ecosystem models and new data.
Read our case studies showing how NECCTON tools and products have been used and co-developed with stakeholders in the fisheries management and biodiversity conservation sectors.
A new video tutorial is now available to help users explore the capabilities of the NECCTON Ocean Viewer, an interactive platform providing access to next-generation marine ecosystem data. ...
Learn moreA new report from NECCTON researchers highlights major advances in how we can track and understand life in our oceans — from microscopic plankton to commercially important fish and even pollution such as plastics and mercury. By bringing together a wide range of scientific models into a single, integrated system, the research offers a more complete picture of how marine ecosystems function and...
Learn moreThe NECCTON project has reached a major milestone with the public release of the NECCTON Ocean Viewer, an open, interactive web platform designed to transform how users explore, understand, and apply cutting edge marine ecosystem information. Now live at https://data.neccton.eu , the viewer delivers unprecedented access to a rapidly expanding catalogue of harmonised, cloud optimised datasets that ...
Learn moreNECCTON Presented at European Ocean Days: Supporting Ecosystem Forecasting for EU Marine Policy During the Marine Knowledge for Ocean Health session at European Ocean Days, the coordinator of the NECCTON project outlined how Europe is developing the capacity to produce operational marine ecosystem forecasts and why this capability is increasingly relevant for policy and management....
Learn moreAt the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2026 in Glasgow (22–27 February 2026), NECCTON co-organised the session “Advancing Marine Ecosystem Modeling for a Predictable and Sustainable Ocean” together with OceanPredict’s Marine Ecosystem Analysis and Prediction Task Team. ...
Learn moreThe NECCTON project has reached an important milestone, unveiling a new generation of marine ecosystem models that promise to transform how we understand and manage our oceans....
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