All Timeline Stories

POGO trainings were featured in three articles in the special Capacity Sharing issue of Oceanography Magazine Oceanography 38(1):   All Aboard! Providing Shipboard Technical Skills While Building Capacity in Ocean Observations Developing Capacity for Ocean Science Through Visiting Fellowships SPOTLIGHT • Impact and Insights from the NF–POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography: A Trainee Perspective

An international cohort of 25 early-career marine scientists participated in a unique field-based training programme aboard the German research icebreaker RV Polarstern. The voyage, part of the POGO North–South Atlantic Transect (NoSoAT) initiative, was led for the fifth time by Professor Karen Wiltshire of Trinity College Dublin, in partnership with the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI)

POGO had a presence at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting (OSM26), which was held in Glasgow, UK, from 22-27 February 2026.  This included various speaking opportunities, and two OBON-focused sessions.

COP30 (30th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Belém, Brazil from 10 to 21 November, 2025 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) psrticipating in the Virtual Ocean

As POGO convened at the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France, it issued a statement on the critical need for sustained ocean observations in order to achieve SDG14 and to measure progress against the ambitions set out by the UNFCCC/ Paris Agreement, CBD/ Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the new BBNJ Agreement, and other conventions and

POGO established a new partnership with OceanX and OceanQuest to provide training opportunities for Early Career Ocean Professionals aboard the OceanXplorer – one of the most advanced research and exploration vessels in the world – as part of the UN Ocean Decade-endorsed ‘Around Africa Expedition‘ (Jan-Jun 2025).  POGO scholars participated in several legs of the cruise.

Phase IV of the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence in Observational Oceanography (CofE) formally launched on 24 October 2024, hosted by the Ocean Frontier Institute, in partnership by the Faculty of Open Learning and Career Development, Dalhousie University, the Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University, and the Hakai Institute. (click through for image caption)

As POGO convened at the 16th Conference of the Parties (CBD16) in Cali, Colombia, it issued a follow-up to the April 2024 Barcelona Declaration: To meet the biodiversity goals outlined in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the 2030 Targets, we must place ocean observations – particularly sustained, globally-coordinated biological observations – at the forefront

The International Quiet Ocean Experiment (IQOE), sponsored by SCOR and POGO, published the Ocean Sound Essential Ocean Variable (EOV) Implementation Plan, providing a framework for passive acoustic observations that will advance our use of sound to understand the ocean.

Case studies conducted by POGO members in different parts of the world demonstrate real examples of various socio-economic benefits of ocean observing. In the second phase of the project (2022 & 2023), we added stories on Climate-critical observing and Geohazards.

CBD COP16 (Sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity) will take place in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November, 2024 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) Expo stand, (2) hosting a side-event, (3) participating in other side events, (4) POGO-led statement on biomolecular

COP29 (29th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 11 to 22 November, 2024 POGO participated in the conference via several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) speaking in other sessions

Ahead of the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona from 10th to 12th April 2024, POGO members came together to highlight the need for sustained, operational, and coordinated biological observation of the ocean, taking advantage of the recent development and expansion of biomolecular observation technologies and initiatives.

COP28 (28th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 30 November – 12 December 2023. POGO participated in the conference through several channels: (1) hosting an official side event, (2) hosting a official exhibit, and (3) speaking in

In August, four miniboats were launched in the Atlantic as part of an outreach project led by POGO, Educational Passages, and AWI. The project involved the NoSoAT 2022 scholars, local partners in Ireland (NUI Galway), Germany (AWI), Spain (CSIC IEO) and South Africa (SAEON), and schools in each of these locations.

The 27th Climate Change Meeting (UNFCCC COP27) was held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, from 6-18 November 2022. POGO participated in the conference through four main channels: (1) the Ocean Pavilion, (2) hosting an official side event, (3) hosting a official exhibit, and (4) speaking in other sessions

Case studies conducted by POGO members in different parts of the world demonstrate real examples of various socio-economic benefits of ocean observing. In the first phase of the project (2021), five case studies focused on different approaches to Coastal Water Quality Monitoring in Malaysia, Nigeria, Portugal, China and Mexico.

The second United Nations Ocean Conference was co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal, in Lison, Portugal, in June 2022. POGO participated in person and virtually, and co-hosted two side events on Capacity Development and Biomolecular Observations.  In addition, the Secretariat coordinated a written statement on behalf of the members and submitted this during the conference,

Accelerating progress towards UN Ocean Decade Challenge 7: “Expanding the Global Ocean Observing System” At the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), held virtually from 24th to 27th January 2022, the members of POGO and Co-Chairs of the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) discussed how to better define

The COLLECT project, which stands for Citizen Observation of Local Litter in Coastal ECosysTems, is a citizen science study funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation (USA). The goal is to actively involve the local community in raising awareness of the consequences of plastic pollution, which can not only damage the environment, but can also have

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Meeting, UNFCCC COP26, was held as a hybrid meeting in Glasgow, UK, and online, in November 2021. POGO had a virtual exhibit booth, staffed online by the Secretariat.  We also co-hosted a side event, entitled, ” Ocean solutions: Coordination and collaboration for ocean-based mitigation and adaptation”.

In June, the IOC announced that POGO’s Ocean Biomolecular Observing Network (OBON) was endorsed as a Decade Programme for the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. OBON was formed as a result of the International Virtual Conference on the use of Environmental DNA (eDNA) in Marine Environments: Opportunities and Challenges, held virtually in December 2020.

NANO Global Project “A Global Study of Coastal Productivity, Deoxygenation and Ocean Acidification”– Workshop Between 2012 and 2017, with the support of NF and POGO, NANO members successfully conducted joint regional research projects that tackled coastal monitoring related to different subjects (e.g., HABs, tides and currents, invasive species) ultimately, applying ocean observations for societal benefit.

SAFARI (Societal Applications in Fisheries and Aquaculture using Remotely-Sensed Imagery), the global initiative to co-ordinate activities on global fisheries and aquaculture research and management using satellite remote sensing imagery, was established in 2007, and in due course entered into scientific interactions with ChloroGIN, IOCCG, POGO and GEO. Initially a task within the GEO Work Plan,

The third Atlantic Transect Floating Summer School – the ‘South-North Atlantic Training Transect’ (SoNoAT) cruise – took place on board the  RV Polarstern in June 2019. The training cruise involved 23 young scientists and 15 experts from 25 nations, travelling from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands to Bremerhaven in Germany over four weeks, and

The Atlantic Meridional Transect (AMT) programme (www.amt-uk.org) began in 1995, utilising the passage of the RRS James Clark Ross through the Atlantic Ocean between the UK and the Falkland Islands (50°N to 52°S, a distance of over 13,500 km) southwards in September and northwards in April each year. The transect crosses a range of ecosystems

During the OceanObs’19 conference in Hawaii, POGO and GEO Blue Planet launched the Oceanscape Portal, a joint initiative to identify existing and create new partnerships among the ocean observing community. All members of the ocean community are invited to participate by adding new “organisations”, which can include intergovernmental organisations, NGOs, private foundations, programmes/projects, companies, trade associations and others –

As of July 2020, POGO has awarded a total of 981 Fellowships in 89 countries. The total number of individuals trained is 905, with several fellows having participated in more than one type of training.

In 2019, POGO was involved in a major shipboard outreach initiative conducted during the South-North Atlantic training Transect (SoNoAT). Outreach activities within the SoNoAT included Skype sessions, blog posts and social media interactions. Skype sessions involved thirteen schools in five countries (two in Germany, eight in the UK, one in Ireland, one in Brazil and

A Statement by the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO), issued at its 20th Annual Meeting held in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, in January 2019. Call to Action: We call on all governments, as well as funders and stakeholders worldwide, to support ocean science institutions in Africa, Small Island Developing States, and other parts

POGO’s exhibition booth, entitled ‘POGO – Observing our Ocean’, presented the ‘Three Pillars’ of POGO’s Mission: Developing capacity, innovative technology and international partnerships towards world-wide cooperation for a sustainable, state-of-the-art global ocean observing system which will serve the needs of science and society by supporting climate research and decision making.

In July 2019 we reached the milestone of 100 scholars trained by the NF-POGO Centre of Excellence. Early career researchers from 42 countries were trained in Observational Oceanography by the NF-POGO CofE at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (40 scholars between 2008-2012) and at the Alfred Wegener Institute (60 scholars between 2013-2019).

The 4th GEO Blue Planet Symposium was held from 4 – 6 July 2018 in Toulouse, France, hosted by Mercator Oceans International and organised as a side event of the European Open Science Forum (ESOF).  The focus was on ocean and coastal information needs for sustainable development, Blue Growth and societal awareness, and involved a

In September 2018, POGO issued a Consensus Statement on the importance and value of ocean observations, for both science and society. This Statement reflects the agreement by the Directors of 38 major oceanographic institutions from around the world, to highlight the need for sustained support for ocean observations, their international coordination through a fully operational

A POGO delegation attended COP24 (24th Annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)) in Katowice, Poland, from 3-14 December 2018.

The 3rd Blue Planet Symposium was held in College Park, Maryland, USA from 31 May to 2 June 2017. The symposium was co-hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Maryland and the University System of Maryland Foundation. The symposium served as a forum for discussion of societal information needs resulting from

and a delegation attends COP23 (Bonn, Germany); POGO partners with PML for the design and manning of an exhibition stand.

The Ocean Training Partnership is an initiative led by POGO in collaboration with the Strategic Marine Alliance for Research and Training (SMART) and the AWI. The project is funded by the Nippon Foundation and hosted by Marinetraining.eu. The objective of the Ocean Training Partnership is to pool infrastruture, resources and expertise to provide marine science graduates with offshore technical skills and

The second “Floating Summer School” took place from Bremerhaven via Las Palmas to Cape Town (South Africa) in November-December 2016. An international group of 25 students was trained in basic techniques of oceanography and remote sensing. The participants learnt how to take samples, how to process them and deal with the accompanying data. The main

After 4 years using the Wikispaces platform, in May 2016 NANO upgraded its website to a more user-friendly, modern looking platform. The new website includes embedded video and photo galleries, allows partial access (members-only) to reports and information and permits alumni to control what is visible to others in their own profile pages. Links to

The second Blue Planet symposium for the GEO marine Task SB-01 “Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet” was held in Cairns, Australia from 27 to 29 May 2015. The symposium was co-organised by CSIRO and POGO. Additional side meetings of the NF-POGO Alumni Network for Oceans and ChloroGIN/SAFARI also took place prior to the symposium.

In 2015, the first NF-POGO shipboard training in the form of the “Floating Summer School” on the North South Atlantic Transect (NoSoAT) cruise provided training during a five week long transit from Bremerhaven (Germany) to Cape Town (South Africa). In total thirty-four post-graduate students were trained in the principles of oceanography and marine biology onboard the RV Polarstern comprising

An Open Science Meeting was convened at the IOC headquarters in Paris in 2011 to gather ideas and input from the broader community of scientists, navies, industries and others. A Writing Group was put together to distil the discussions at that meeting into a Science Plan, which was subsequently reviewed and approved by SCOR and

The “Ocean Communicators United” (OCU) Working Group is an informal grouping of representatives of international, regional or national oceanographic research organisations that provides a forum for its members to share information, expertise, best practices and materials related to marine science communications. Read more…

[Read the POGO Newsletter article here]

A kick-off symposium for the new GEO marine Task SB-01 “Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet” was held in Ilhabela, São Paulo State, Brazil, from November 19 to 21, 2012. The symposium was co-sponsored by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), GEO, INPE and POGO and took place just prior to the GEO-IX Plenary, held in

The “Hot, Sour and Breathless – Ocean under stress” awareness campaign, led by PML, was first launched at the COP17 conference (Durban, South Africa, 2011).  POGO came on board as a campaign supporter for the COP-18 Conference in Doha, Qatar (2012).

Beginning of 4 NANO regional research projects (Latin America, North West Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia) (Read introductions to the projects in NANO News Issue 2)

At a meeting of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO) in Honolulu (January 2012), world leaders in ocean observing representing 29 major oceanographic institutions from 18 countries re-affirmed their commitment to work together for increased understanding of how our oceans are affected by climate change, and to optimise the benefits to society

Published in 2014, “Oceans and Society: Blue Planet” is targeted at all stakeholders within the ocean and marine community. The book discusses activities and future actions of Blue Planet and raises awareness for the further development and implementation of the Blue Planet agenda. Readers will learn about ocean observations, how they can be integrated, and