Engaging communities to add value to the European Digital Twin Ocean

The European Commission launched the construction of the European Digital Twin Ocean (European DTO) initiative in 2022 to make ocean information readily available to everyone, from policymakers and researchers to businesses and citizens.

The European DTO was ideated to offer the most advanced ocean numerical modelling and simulation tools to support science-based decision-making and boost impact on key objectives of the EU Mission Ocean & Waters, such as protecting marine biodiversity, stopping ocean pollution, and supporting growing, more sustainable blue economy.

EDITO-Model Lab, a 3-year Horizon Europe project, plays a key role in the construction of the European DTO. We are equipping the basic infrastructure developed by our sister project, EDITO-Infra, with the next-generation numerical models that will allow a wide range of users to visualise ocean data and simulate scenarios with the European DTO.

From the very early days in 2023, our work was based in engaging different communities who could contribute to the development of the European DTO or use it to their own needs. Today, there is a growing network of users, from top experts in ocean numerical modelling to citizens, all benefiting from the several outputs of the EDITO-Model Lab project.

A platform with multi-layered value

The European DTO is a single, co-developed digital tool through which different types of users can learn, interact, test, and make decisions. The EDITO-Model Lab project already built powerful tools that transform ocean data into real-world information that can benefit society in multiple ways, such as advanced, fast simulations that help to better understand how marine environments function and can respond to specific natural and human-induced changes.

What can users do with the European DTO?

EXPLORE: access and watch ocean data, from Copernicus Marine and EMODnet, to understand, study, and monitor the ocean
CREATE: design and run digital twin applications, leveraging supercomputing and collaborating to build new ocean simulation tools
CONTRIBUTE: share their own data and applications with others, participate in training sessions and create tutorials

Who is already in the EDITO Model-Lab user community?

The European DTO is being built based in the engagement of a wide variety of users, interacts to reach specific goals and through evolving ways to add value beyond the work carried out by projects like EDITO-Model Lab. Some users build new digital tools, others share data, and some explore the outputs and learn about the ocean.

Everyone has a role to play and benefits from each other’s contributions, and have opportunities to develop and integrate digital applications, sharing their knowledge, data, and solutions with a broader community.

Within the various contributions of EDITO-Model Lab to the construction of the European DTO, we have created two main sets of applications:

Focus Applications (FAs): targeting intermediate users (numerical modellers, data scientists, programmers and some researchers working on fundamental science) they allow to create new application to understand better what is happening in the ocean and coastal zones. Find out more about EDITO-Model Lab FAs here.
What-if Scenarios (WiS): targeting end users (policy makers, blue economy actors, applied researchers, NGOs and the general public) they allow to visualise data and simulate scenarios and the response of the ocean to specific management actions. Find out more about the EDITO-Model Lab WiS here.

Beta Testers: the pioneers

Initially, the beta-testers were the first users of EDITO-Model Lab. A bit like pioneers exploring territories and resources, they had the chance to be the first to start using and provide feedback on the earlier versions of the EDITO Platform. They are members of our consortium partners – including leading marine research institutions, universities, innovation laboratories and data centres – who were responsible to initially define the first user requirements, test the potential and capabilities, and identify what improvements and further developments were needed. This first cohort of users therefore played a crucial role in shaping, validating, and making the European DTO evolve.

The contribution of Beta Testers to EDITO-Model Lab:

Create on-demand FAs of specific ocean variables and processes
Use high-performance computing resources to run complex calculations
Deploy and test next-gen ocean numerical models
Integrated new tools and FAs to foster the engagement of other users
Learn more on how beta testers contribute to the co-design phase of EDITO-Model Lab here.

Although EDITO-Model Lab will reach its terminus in December 2025, beta testing will continue within the construction of the European DTO. There will always exist the need to have beta testers putting their hands and minds in new capabilities that will continue to be added. New external experts will carry on the work initiated by the “pioneers”, creating new simulations, contributing with additional FAs, adding new numerical models to the one already incorporated, and experimenting with AI for further improvements.

EDITO-Model Lab gave and will continue to give these expert users the space to experiment and innovate, whether through accessing supercomputing facilities, deploying their own simulations, or testing new data processing methods.

Intermediate Users: the first reviewers

After the first release of the EDITO Platform, our project gathered a new set of users with strong technical skills who were not involved in its core building. They were diverse professionals working in marine research, ocean data analysis, and environmental monitoring.

Among the intermediate users, ocean numerical modellers and marine scientists recreate how the ocean behaves and forecast future events and changes. Data scientists who look for patterns in huge amounts of data to make sense of complex systems, like marine pollution or biodiversity dynamics, were also part of the intermediate users. And, of course, AI experts helped to teach computers to “learn” from real data and make predictions about how the ocean will respond to very specific events.

The contribution of Intermediate Users to EDITO-Model Lab:

Tested and validated the core model suite
Co-developed new Focus Applications
Provided feedback to refine tools, data workflows, and user interfaces
Helped continuing building the community of expert users shaping the future of the European DTO

Learn more on how Intermediate Users improved the core model suite and contributed to the development of EDITO-Model Lab here.

End Users: from ocean data to action

Not everyone needs to know how to code to benefit with the European DTO. End-users are people who explore the results, learn from them, and make decisions based on what they find.

A key sub-group of end users are policymakers at local, national and international levels that are responsible to plan how to deal with the ocean and coastal challenges, such as sea level rise, maritime safety, ocean conservation, marine pollution, among many others. NGOs and environmental groups who advocate for a clean, sustainable ocean and protected marine areas can also use the European DTO to better support their agendas.

On the industry side, private companies involved in the blue economy activities, like maritime shipping, coastal tourism, fisheries, aquaculture, can employ the European DTO to reduce their environmental impact. Finally, educators, journalists and the public at large can use it to visualise ocean data and better understand how the ocean affects us all, and vice versa.

End users can interact mainly through the EDITO-Model Lab’s What if Scenarios. Our simulation tools allow them to visualise different futures, for example, by exploring how a shipping route could be adjusted to real meteorological conditions to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gases emissions. Or by assessing different levels of regulations in marine protected areas which might lead to varied impacts on biodiversity. Other end-users dealing with rapidly eroding shorelines could test the consequences of nature-based solutions to make the coast more resilient to sea level rise.

EDITO-Model Lab and ocean literacy

The European DTO can also serve for educational purposes that may lead to a “bluer” generation. Educators, artists, influencers, journalists, families, and individuals can use What if Scenarios (WiS) to learn and show what, where and why some of the most talked-about ocean and coastal issues are occurring, increasing the ocean literacy levels in society.

By the end of 2025, here are some of the questions that we can already help to answer:

Which rivers transport more plastic into European seas?
If a given Baltic municipality reduces in 50% the amount of plastic in urban runoff, how much less plastic will reach the nearby beaches?
If we fully eliminate fishing in a marine protected area in a Northeast Atlantic Marine Protected Area, how much time is needed for the fish stocks to duplicate?
Could an optimised maritime shipping route that skips a big storm in the Pacific Ocean significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of that vessel?
How much seagrass is needed to reduce shoreline retreat in 80% in a North Sea beach?

Want to have a sneak peek at all these examples and other EDITO-Model Lab WiS? Have a look at our Training Workshop during the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice.

How exactly did EDITO-Model Lab engage its users?

Between early 2023 and late 2025, the EDITO-Model Lab consortium organised various events and other types of opportunities to have its diverse communities of users actively participating in the construction of the European DTO.

Whether through beginner-friendly demos or advanced hands-on coding exercises, the project succeeded in finding ways to understand in detail what the future users will look for in the European DTO and adapted its development to the feedback received in different experiences, such as:

Workshops: In the early days, beta testers and intermediate users helped shape the EDITO Platform. Learn more about the inaugural one here.
Training Sessions: In-person and online events gave different types of users the chance to learn how to use the tools produced by EDITO-Model Lab. Watch the recordings of some of these events in our YouTube channel.
Tutorials: Intermediate users can find tutorials in the EDITO Platform that show, step by step, how to explore existing new FAs and build new ones from scratch. Start exploring the platform here.
Open Days: On each annual General Assembly of EDITO-Model Lab, various users from outside of the consortium were invited to see the added value of each FAs and WiS. Learn more about what took place in Lecce and Palma.
Demonstrations: Scientists, researcher managers and policymakers were among the first ones to attend the first public demonstration of the European DTO during the 2024 Digital Ocean Forum (DOF). Learn more here.
Hackathon: The EDITO-Model Lab Hackathon was launched during the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice. Have a look! Between June and October 2025, several intermediate users’ teams were trained to fully master the potential of the EDITO Platform. From October 22nd to 24th, an intense 3-day hackathon took place in Toulouse and online with the goal of testing how far they can go in using our tools to create new FAs. The results will be presented at the 2025 Digital Ocean Forum in Brussels.

A broader community

Beyond EDITO-Model Lab and EDITO-Infra (and its new follow-up project EDITO 2), the European DTO initiative is a larger family of projects working towards a common purpose. For example, collaborations with ILIAD and EuroGOOS help to further share data, avoid duplication, and align with international efforts to better understand and protect our seas.

In the future, the European DTO may be fed by other projects that are developing specific applications for data simulation on various societal challenges. Examples of ongoing Horizon Europe projects that can contribute in this capacity would be FOCCUS, SEACLIM and SURIMI, among others.

By accelerating adaptation to ocean-related climate change, the European DTO has the potential to support society in a much larger way – for example, in association with Destination Earth initiative (DestinE) - serving as a centralised hub where knowledge is transferred and reused across multiple purposes. Other users not directly involved in ocean issues can then access new data sources and specialised applications to gain insights into various environmental threats, allowing them to implement or adapt solutions to their own needs.

The show must go on

As mentioned, the EDITO Model-Lab project concludes in December 2025. Its outputs are already feeding into the new EDITO 2 project. Our core model suite, platform, FAs and WiS are indeed adding value to the EU DTO. Through the work and outputs of EDITO-Model Lab, new communities and initiatives now have means to make the European DTO even more complete, functional and useful to all. The goal is clear: by 2030, the EU DTO will be fully operational, serving as a global benchmark for digital ocean solutions.

Stay tuned for updates on our LinkedIn and X.