1. EMSO – PP European Multidisciplinary Seafloor Observation Preparatory Phase PROJECT OVERVIEW

2. Start: 1 st April 2008 (4 years) Duration: 4 years Coordinator: INGV - Paolo Favali Project Officer: Anna Maria Johansson (Anna-Maria.JOHANSSON@ec.europa.eu) Project Costs: € 5.402.221,190 / EC Funding: € 3.900.000 General Information

3. Project Objectives 1.Definition and agreement upon the governance and legal form for the Core Legal Entity (CLE) and for each Regional Legal Entities (RLE). 2.Design of a funding plan including contributions from national, European, and international funding resources. More specifically, a business plan covering both the investment and the operational expenditures for the first decade of service will be set up. 3.Achievement of a long-term commitment from the involved funding agencies will be obtained through the activation of discussion tables where the largest possible political convergence will be reached and formalised in specific agreement protocols and MoUs. 4.Definition of operational procedures with regard to deployed instrumentation, logistic intervention and maintenance will be defined. 5.Definition of a long-term strategy and choice of sites 6.Establishment of the engineering specifications for each chosen site.

4. Issues to be solved The diversity of regional sites in terms of available legal frameworks; The harmonisation of funding (national, European, international, industrial) with respect to scope, objectives, and timing; The logistic constraints regarding available resources, and environmental protection; Possible technical bottle necks for which currently no off-the-shelf solution is available

5. Work-Breakdown Structure Work package No Work package title Lead beneficiary No WP 1ManagementINGV WP 2Governance structureINGV WP 3Legal workIMI WP 4Financial workUIT WP 5Business planIMI WP 6Logistic workUTM-CSIC WP 7Strategic workKDM WP 8Technical workIFREMER

6. Link among WPs and objectives Objective short descriptionRelated WP Definition and agreement upon the governance and legal form WP2, 3 Design of a funding plan WP 4, 5 Achievement of a long-term commitment from the involved funding agencies WP2,3, 4 The operational procedures with regard to deployed instrumentation, logistic intervention and maintenance WP6, 7 A long-term strategy will be defined and sites will be chosen as an EMSO-PP deliverable WP7, 8 Establishment of the engineering specifications for each chosen site WP7,8

7. Project timeline 1/2

8. Project timeline 2/2

9. WPs Interconnections WPs are dedicated to 2 major groups of activities Creation of EMSO organisational Body Design of EMSO technical-economic plan

10. Technical Economic Plan Creation of EMSO organisation body FUNDING AGENCIES AGREEMENT AND COMMITTMENT EMSO-PP will constitute the roundtable to build consensus among Nations

11. Regional Legal Entities (RLEs) Integration of regional infrastructures managing sub-sea observatory sites (RLEs-Regional Legal Entities) all having a single coordination entity (CLE-Core Legal Entity) Ultimate output of organisation body set up

12. Research Infrastructure Member States European Commission Other Stakeholders (e.g., Industry) EIB Funding through national programmes Funding through RTD programmes or inclusion in DG- REGIO/DG-DEV strategic plans Loans Ultimate output of the technical- economic plan: financial engineering Up to 50% of project costs

13. CONTACT DETAILS