Organisation

Operation

The Euro-Argo European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is composed of a Central Infrastructure (the ERIC Office) and distributed national facilities. The statutes of the Euro-Argo ERIC apply to the Central Infrastructure.

The Ifremer Institute in Brest, that hosts the ERIC Office (©Ifremer)

The ERIC Office is responsible for the overall coordination of Euro-Argo. It also participates in the procurement and deployment of floats; it has expertise in all aspects of the programme; it acts as a resource centre for all participants and users. The ERIC Office is located in Brest, France, for the first 5 years and is hosted by Ifremer. The ERIC Office team is headed by the Programme Manager assisted by 7 persons.

As an active participant in the operational programme itself, in particular for deployment of floats (e.g. funded by the European Commission or by Members and Observers who may request such assistance), the ERIC Office engages in the following activities:

  • receive and manage funds from members, observers and from the European Commission (e.g. DG-MARE, H2020)
  • order floats, receive them, test as necessary
  • organize their deployment; ship to the appropriate lab or port of call for deployment
  • monitor their performance to detect any dysfunction
  • contribute  with the Euro-Argo partners to technological developments recommendations, field trials, and Argo implementation
  • engage in data management activities in relation with the European Argo Data Centres
  • develop with the Management Board the Euro-Argo Strategy for the next decade and its implementation plan
  • organise joint R&D activities at European level
  • link with the European Argo users, sustain and develop the European Argo users’ community and help answering its needs

The distributed national facilities are the participating Agencies, who operate with direct national resources. As part of the Euro-Argo ERIC, they agree to a multi-annual commitment of resources (in particular in terms of floats to be deployed and for the data system), and to coordinate their activities through the ERIC Office. All resources engaged by the National Agencies in support of Argo objectives will be considered as contributions to the Euro-Argo Research Infrastructure.
The participating Agencies may be called upon to perform some activities under contract from the Euro-Argo ERIC, in particular some tasks necessary for the deployment and data management of European Commission funded floats.

© Euro-Argo ERIC

 

Members and Observers

- Members are states and intergovernmental organizations. The Members have the power to vote on all the questions raised during the Council meetings and mentioned in the agenda. They will contribute to the Euro-Argo ERIC with an annual subscription fee of 30 k€ and the minimum deployment of 3 Argo floats per year.

- Observers may be Member States and intergovernmental organisations. They may be represented by one or more, agencies, institutes, public entities, including regions or private entities with a public service mission, contributing to the Euro-Argo ERIC. They may be represented in all the governing bodies, on a consultative basis without voting rights. Their subscription fee is 10 k€.

See here for an updated list of Euro-Argo Members and Observers.

Governance

See here for a list of the national representatives of each Euro-Argo ERIC governance body.