NECCTON: A Franco-British partnership anchoring Europe’s ocean leadership

Image courtesy of Aleks M | Unsplash

Hosted by the French Ambassador, this event identified and highlighted outstanding European projects where Franco-British co-operations play a central role.

NECCTON stands as a flagship example of how Franco-British collaboration continues to drive Europe’s leadership in ocean science and operational capability. It helps build a powerful partnership between France and the UK and unites 23 partners across Europe.

The project strengthens Europe’s capacity to protect marine biodiversity and manage ocean ecosystems effectively. Specifically, it introduces models of  fish, seafloor habitats and pollution into the Copernicus Marine Service, the European Union’s programme for operational ocean monitoring.

The partnership between Mercator Ocean International (MOi) and PML lies at the heart of this successful research consortium. MOi brings world-leading expertise in operational oceanography, while PML contributes to the scientific leadership across NECCTON’s development areas and provides the overall project management.

From ecosystem and biogeochemical modelling, to biodiversity and pollution components, PML’s teams are central to ensuring scientific excellence, integration and delivery across the entire consortium.

Collaborating with the UK Met Office, PML is leading Work Package 5 that is focused on improving and extending products relating to the lower trophic levels of the marine foodweb and biogeochemistry. The work has included: developing new products for dissolved and particulate organic carbon, which are important factors in the marine carbon cycle; adding Diel Vertical Migration for mesozooplankton; adding a sub-model for suspended particulate inorganic matter (SPM), and adding a multi-spectral model for light, which allows us to deliver a new product for reflectance.

The PML team are also heavily involved in all of the other work packages, including: developing multi-stressor metrics (WP8), which account for the combined impact of different stressors (e.g. heat stress, low oxygen, pollution) on different receptors (e.g. particular fish species); developing new products for sea floor biota (WP6); using machine learning models to reduce model bias (WP4), and generating new products for fish in support of fisheries management.

A unique example of continuity and mutual trust

Originally designed under UK leadership at PML, NECCTON’s coordination was seamlessly transferred to its French partner, MOi, after Brexit, when UK institutions became ineligible to lead EU-funded projects. This smooth transition was made possible by years of scientific collaboration, development of excellent working relationships, mutual trust and the shared commitment to excellence between PML and MOi.

This partnership demonstrates how strong Franco-British cooperation can adapt to changing national and institutional landscapes while maintaining scientific momentum.