Baltic Sea – SCOOT

C2B2 – Co-Creating Better Blue

Baltic Sea, Citizen Science, Data, Environmental management, Innovation, People, Sweden, Workshop / January 17, 2023 January 18, 2023

In December 2022 came the news that Mistra (the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) will fund the new programme C2B2 – Co-Creating Better Blue. The consortium behind C2B2 include many actors from the network around SCOOT and Ocean Data Factory Sweden. The programme C2B2 is initially funded for 4 years.

The maritime domain and the blue economy are in an exciting and transformative period, not least manifested by the rapid expansion of offshore installations. Both challenges and opportunities abound… C2B2 identifies co-creation as the most important tool for sustainability in human activities at sea. 38 maritime actors from industry, academia, public sector and civil society will start working together in C2B2, and the programme will be open for more to join. Feel free to contact C2B2 programme director Torsten Linders.

Mistra’s expectations are clear:

Sustainable blue economy and governance should be at the center of the research program. An ecosystem-based approach should be the basis for and constitute an essential part of the understanding, management and governance of existing and potential future human activities, primarily outside coastal areas. Methods and instruments that can minimize conflicts and identify synergy effects are of particular importance in this context, for example marine spatial planning. Industrial operations at sea can be of great importance for the development of a sustainable blue economy, provided that the operations are planned and conducted in a sustainable manner. Not least new innovative companies could have a role in this transition.

Central to the C2B2 approach is the LivingLabs co-creation methodology, applied to the development of three demonstration cases to trigger transformative changes towards participatory ocean governance, involving relevant sectors and actors in Sweden’s three marine basins (Gulf of Bothnia, Baltic Proper, Kattegatt-Skagerrak).

We have to start thinking differently about the marine environment, and we have to do it together!

Uta Wehn, Associate Professor at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education Scientific Director of C2B2 and leader of WP4 Co-creation of participatory ocean governance in LivingLabs

The programme C2B2 has been designed under the leadership of Uta Wehn during her time as Adlerbert visiting professor in marine citizen science at the University of Gothenburg. The programme is built around three pillars:

Open ecosystems & climate science,
Open, data-driven
innovation & emerging technologies,
Ocean governance & adaptive management.

Uta Wehn will be the Scientific Director and leader of WP4 Co-creation of participatory ocean governance in LivingLabs.

We have so many important actors already in the programme, spanning the relevant sectors. This means we have a real chance of making a difference for the sustainable blue economy.

Mikael Lind, Senior Research Advisor at RISE Leader of WP2 Open, data-driven innovation & emerging technologies

Research engineer from Moscow wins the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge!

Baltic Sea, Citizen Science, Data, Data Factory, Innovation, Invasive specieses, Workshop / June 11, 2020 December 21, 2021

In March the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge was opened on Kaggle by Ocean Data Factory Sweden (coordinated by SCOOT): Use innovative machine learning (ML) solutions to predict the spread of the so-called “Killer Shrimp” (Dikerogammarus Villosus) into the Baltic Sea. The challenge is now closed , the referees have completed the evaluation and announced that the winner is…

Dimitriy, research engineer at IBRAE RAS in Moscow, Russia! Dimitriy nicked the winner’s place with a score of 0.99954 (out of a maximum possible 1) and by complying to all rules. Dimitry will be presenting his model in an open webinar on June 16th, see below:

The Benefits and Challenges of Open Innovation and Citizen Science for Solving Ocean Challenges through Applying ML to Ocean Data

Join us on June 16th for a Zoom discussion (Please register here):

15:30 to 15:40 Introduction to Ocean Data Factory Sweden and afternoon discussion
15:40 to 16:10 The Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge on Kaggle: An online competition tackling the spread of invasive marine species through machine learning
16:10 to 16.20 Break
16.20 to 16.50 The Koster Seafloor Observatory on Zooniverse (still open to join!): Using citizen science and machine learning to annotate subsea imagery
16.50 to 17.00 Concluding remarks

Join the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge!

Baltic Sea, Citizen Science, Data, Data Factory, Innovation, Invasive specieses / March 9, 2020 December 21, 2021

Ocean Data Factory Sweden (coordinated by SCOOT) releases an open challenge: Use innovative machine learning (ML) solutions to predict the spread of the so-called “Killer Shrimp” (Dikerogammarus Villosus) into the Baltic Sea. Join the Killer Shrimp Invasion Challenge online on Kaggle!

Are you

a data scientist interested in applying your knowledge to environmental challenges?
a marine scientist interested in using Machine Learning in your work?
generally passionate about the ocean and keen to learn more about Machine Learning and Marine Science?

Then this is the right challenge for you! The winner of this competition will be awarded a €150 prize, along with the opportunity to present their winning model at the next ODF Sweden Grand Meeting. The event will be in the beautiful city of Gothenburg in June 2020 (date tba).

ODF Sweden supports Baltic Seabird AI/UX Hackathon

Baltic Sea, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Data, Data Factory, Hackathon, Seabirds / October 9, 2019 December 21, 2021

Ocean Data Factory Sweden (coordinated by SCOOT) will support the AI/UX Hackathon about the Baltic Sea Guillemots (“Sillgrisslor”), taking place on November 21-22 in Gothenburg. ODF Sweden will be in the Hackathon jury and our partner SMHI will deliver local oceanographic data.

The Guillemots are fascinating seabirds high up in the food chain. They can tell us a lot about the state of the fish and the rest of the Baltic Sea ecosystem. Gathering and annotating data is a heavy task for the scientists of the Baltic Seabird Project. In last year’s trial, huge leaps were made with the help of citizen science. The live stream hosted by WWF produced some 1300+ comments and insights. With the use of AI, recognition of individuals and frequent events could be automated, leaving the extra-ordinary and rarer observations to researchers and citizen science.