Global ocean observation : Inauguration of Euro-Argo ERIC

Euro-Argo is the European contribution to the international Argo array of 3,000 profiling floats (small autonomous robots), measuring temperature and salinity from the surface down to 2,000 m throughout the global oceans. This is the first time a European legal entity (European Research Infrastructure Consortium, ERIC) has been established for in-situ observation of the global
oceans. This is a major milestone which will optimize, sustain and improve the European contributions to Argo. Euro-Argo was officially created by the European Commission on May 12, 2014. It is also the first ERIC to be set up for environmental sciences. The inauguration was held on July, 17, 2014 in Brussels, at the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union, most notably in the presence of (see photo, from left to right) François Jacq, Chairman and CEO Ifremer, Elisabeth Vergès, scientific director of sector “Environment-Universe”, French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research, Pierre-Yves Le Traon, coordinator Euro-Argo and scientist at Ifremer as well as John Bell, director bioeconomy, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission.