CSIC scientists at the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona and at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona will participate in the project “COMMON SENSE: Cost Effective Sensors Interoperable with International Existing Ocean Observing Systems to meet EU policies Requirements”. This project was launched last November 2013 and is funded by the EC Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) within the “Oceans of Tomorrow” program.

The project aims at developing and testing autonomous and cost-effective sensors for monitoring oceans. Image: R+D CSIC.The project aims at developing and testing autonomous and cost-effective sensors for monitoring the usual oceanographic conditions (temperature, pH, CO2...) and different pollutants from any kind of platform: boys, fixed facilities or ships, including sport boats that compete in oceanic races such as the Barcelona World Race.  The sensors will be fully interoperable with existing observing systems and compatible with the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS).

The sensors will be aimed to detect:

• Nutrient analytes to control eutrophication (ammonia, nitrites, phosphates...)  
• Concentrations of heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, copper)
• Microplastic fraction within marine litter
• Underwater noise

CommonSense project is led by the Centre Tecnològic Leitat, in Terrassa (Spain), and  its consortium brings together 15 partners from seven different countries: Germany, Spain, Ireland, Italy,  Macedonia, Poland and United Kingdom. The consortium’s expertise and geographical distribution will enable multidisciplinary marine environmental monitoring of key marine regions, including the Baltic Sea, the north-east Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

Common Sense at Cordis website: http://cordis.europa.eu/projects/rcn/110790_en.html