The European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and Water Column Observatory (EMSO) is the multidisciplinary scientific observatory on a continental scale for monitoring and studying the oceans, projected towards the discovery of the role of oceanic and marine phenomena and their interactions in the complex terrestrial system. The observatories, located from the North-East Atlantic through the Mediterranean and down to the Black Sea, are platforms equipped with multiple sensors, positioned along the water column and on the seabed. They constantly measure various biogeochemical and physical parameters, which can reveal the onset of natural hazards, the evolution of climate change and the state of marine ecosystems. Through the production and analysis of data, EMSO offers scientists, institutions and policy makers extraordinary information also for the definition of environmental policies. And today the whole international community, especially the youth, is shaking up in search of solutions for an eco-sustainable environment.
But how did the idea of EMSO come about?
We talked about it with Laura Beranzoli, INGV technologist manager and technical-scientific contact person for INGV of the EMSO programme.
EMSO was born from an idea as natural as it was visionary which was difficult to give credit to. In 1993 four researchers from the National Institute of Geophysics (ING), two seniors, Giuseppe Smriglio and Paolo Favali, and two young people, Francesco Frugoni and I, thought it might be an opportunity to advance knowledge to build an underwater observatory to study geophysical phenomena from a different point of view, but analogously to what was done on land.
But did the technology of the time allow it?
The realization was by no means easy. We soon discovered - obviously, not with the internet, by googling some search keywords - but much more traditionally with bibliographic research, that some French seismologists had even 'disturbed' a submarine vehicle with three people on board to sink a seismometer and install it in one of the wells drilled on the seabed as part of the Ocean Drilling Program. A huge effort to acquire only seismological data.
Then you discovered that there were other “visionaries” in the world…
Yes indeed. We were not alone in thinking that the Earth could be observed not "from the land" but from another perspective, that of the marine environment. However, even before designing it, we were convinced that an observatory at the bottom of the sea must necessarily be multidisciplinary, i.e. equipped with sensors that cover multiple disciplines, primarily geophysics with the branches that ING deals with. But for a multidisciplinary project other expert professionals are needed… It was obvious that we needed, above all, the intervention of engineers who were experts in marine technologies and who could instruct us on the feasibility of our project and our "vision". We did not know directly but, thanks to word of mouth among CNR colleagues, with a lot of patience in other bibliographic searches and a pinch of luck, we came to identify an Italian company expert in the sector. We tried to contact the company to ask if any of its experts would be available to talk about it and… without even realizing it, the next day a company manager arrived from Venice in Via di Vigna Murata: the four researchers had been taken seriously ! The engineer immediately showed interest in the project and told us that the company had participated in a feasibility study funded by the European Commission of the 5th Framework Program. New and unexpected scenarios opened up for "visionaries"... An unprecedented scenario opened up before us, not only for the personal experience of each of us four researchers, but for the Institute itself: preparing a valid project proposal, in response to a call from the European Commission, to request funding and create a prototype observatory that could be installed in a relatively simple and cheap way. An exciting and unimaginable challenge.
Did you encounter operational problems?
First, the search for a solid partnership. We were aware that we could not build a project with only two partners and moreover from the same country. But, as the project took shape, we found other possible Italian, French and German partners with relative ease. They almost seemed as if they were waiting for our proposal. Soon after, the GEOSTAR project "Geophysical and Oceanographic Station for Abyssal Research" was born, the first of a series of three where the coordinating body was still ING: and we had no project experience, no management experience.
Fear of missing the target?
We didn't think about the possibility of missing the target. Not out of recklessness but, simply, we were so focused on how best to achieve intermediate goals that we didn't have time to think about the risk of failure. There were very expert and 'competitive' partners, we were aware of this and wanted to be up to it. A few ironic jokes behind his back and a few smug smiles from school colleagues were an incentive for us to take up the challenge. But it is certain that a bankruptcy would have seriously embarrassed ING and put us out of the game forever: there was no more unfavorable condition for attempting to open a new research sector. But determination has “paid” for the effort… Our determination has been the key to everything. We have studied, we have learned new things that are very distant from us, such as management. But from that experience an increasingly large and cohesive group was born, with new projects, an increasingly vast European network of research groups interested in collaborating for a single objective: to create a network of observatories.
What was the most exciting moment?
Unforgettable: 1st October 2016. An official note finally arrived at today's INGV in which the European Commission communicated that it had officially formalized the acceptance of the request made by the Italian government, also on behalf of seven other European countries (France, Greece , Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Romania and Spain), to set up a European institution, EMSO ERIC - European Research Infrastructure Consortium - which would permanently coordinate the efforts of the countries to maintain, extend and develop a network of multidisciplinary submarine observatories, some of them direct descendants of that GEOSTAR project. Today EMSO ERIC represents an innovative reality in the Italian panorama of European research infrastructures. It is, in fact, the second ERIC established with its registered office in Italy. This requires INGV, in the role of Representing Entity of the Italian scientific community that the MIUR has assigned it, to adopt an innovative approach that favors a synergistic action between legal-managerial activities and scientific-technological activities aimed at maximum facilitation in the management of processes and of the specific procedures in the context of the Italian participation in the Research Infrastructures. Looking back I think I can say that reality has gone far beyond our imagination.