Research project funded by Formas.
This project will develop a co-created resource for holistic, cross-disciplinary variable selection for ocean observation and assessment, establishing a more informative and future-ready foundation for Swedish ocean observing.
Sweden’s coasts and seas face increasing pressures, and both national assessments and researchers consistently highlight major gaps in marine knowledge, monitoring capacity and data integration. Measuring What Matters responds by developing a co-created resource that supports holistic, cross-disciplinary variable selection for ocean observation and assessment. Instead of focusing on isolated datasets, mandates or disciplines, the project brings together biological, environmental, social, economic, technological and governance dimensions, data types that are rarely considered together, into a structured support resource that helps practitioners to identify the variables relevant to their needs, questions and reporting obligations. Through co-creation with County Administrative Boards, national agencies, researchers, and other stakeholders, the project will map observation gaps, build a shared variable-selection resource, and test its usefulness in real cases such as ecosystem status assessments and the operationalisation of genetic indicators. The project will strengthen FAIR data flows and open, interoperable data infrastructures to ensure long-term accessibility and impact.
By integrating diverse disciplinary approaches, Measuring What Matters establishes a more informative and future-ready foundation for Swedish ocean observing. The project enhances national capacity to meet reporting obligations and supports a more transparent, inclusive and sustainable blue transformation.
At Umeå university, we will be investigating how marine environmental observation systems can become more resilient, scalable, and adaptive under accelerating environmental and climate change. The research will explore how innovative monitoring design and emerging observation technologies can be combined to improve the long-term reliability, responsiveness, and usability of marine environmental monitoring across spatial and temporal scales.
