The role of Research Infrastructures in supporting the sustainable development of the Blue Economy

Research Infrastructures (RIs) are defined as facilities that provide resources and services for the research communities to conduct research and foster innovation in their fields ( European Commission Directorate General for Research and Innovation, 2020 ). RIs can have a number of different governance structures and forms, ranging from informal networks of related organisations to more formal legal arrangements, such as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) (. In relation to marine environmental RI’s at a national level, EirOOS is the Irish Ocean Observing System and Ireland’s contribution to the European Ocean Observing System (EOOS) ( Gaughan et al, 2020 ). EirOOS facilities include the SmartBay Cabled Observatory, the Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network, the Irish Tide Gauge Network and the Irish Glider Programme.