INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE EXPLORATION OF THE SEA (ICES)

ICES, established in 1902, is an intergovernmental organization whose main objective is to improve the scientific knowledge of the marine environment and its living resources, and to use this knowledge to provide sound scientific advice on their use. The ICES scientific network draws upon the expertise from its 20 member states, as well as associated countries. ICES has focused on the North Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea. The ICES Secretariat has been based in Copenhagen, Denmark, since 1902. The Secretariat staff (55 individuals) provides secretarial, administrative, scientific, and data handling support to the ICES community. The ICES Database contains fisheries, oceanographic, contaminants, biological effects, and biological data extending back more than 120 years. The ICES Data Centre consists of 14 data managers, data scientists and computer programmers/database developers who support the entire ICES organisation with data handling, data products and guidance on best practices.

ICES will test and use the developed education virtual research environments for stock assessment and fisheries monitoring, as well as cooperate in the design. ICES will provide a standard access the tools and data. ICES will participate in the Use Cases planned under the proposal lead the “Support Marine life” thematic VRE.

Key members

Dr. Wojciech Wawrzynski, ICES Deputy Head of Science; PhD Economist, University of Gdansk, Poland; Member of the European Economic Association, European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, European Association of Fisheries Economists and the International Arctic Social Sciences Association. Wojciech has studied the effectiveness of financial mechanisms for research and innovation and has extensive experience in European science cooperation and science-policy projects. He has participated in numerous EU funded projects: POLMARF, EUROCEANS, MARIFISH and COFASP ERA-NETs, 4SEAS, STAGES, MARCOM (and several others co-funded from outside the Framework Programme financial streams).

Anna Davies is the ICES Conference and Training Coordinator. The courses offered by ICES are aimed at scientists at various stages of their careers, with topics in recent years having included stock assessment, communicating science and advice leading effective technical meetings and social science methods for natural scientists.