Plankton drives the ocean’s biological carbon pump, regulating climate and sustaining marine ecosystems. Yet its dynamics remain largely unobserved because current technologies cannot deliver continuous, high-frequency (hour, day), vertically integrated measurements. This observational gap limits our ability to understand and predict ocean services such as climate regulation. The ERC HOPE project demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous offshore monitoring, deploying a prototype integrating 12 instruments measuring >30 parameters hourly/daily. Over a 2-year deployment, the platform generated 10 TB of multidisciplinary data and performed ~600 vertical profiles. While scientifically successful, the platform remains technically complex with heterogeneous energy, data transmission, and network systems limiting scalable deployment. SMART-OCEAN addresses these bottlenecks by unifying energy systems, implementing redundant data transmission, and standardizing onboard networks, transforming HOPE into a replicable, decarbonized platform for persistent observations across the atmosphere-surface-deep ocean continuum.
SMART-OCEAN combines a floating laboratory, protected underwater structure, renewable energy and an autonomous profiling cage, enabling multiple heavy sensors to operat at high frequency for months with real-time data transmission. By demonstrating a fully connected, scalable offshore platform, SMART-OCEAN enables new scientific discoveries and supports climate and weather forecasting while delivering operational monitoring services for environmental agencies, marine managers, and industry. Serving as a next-generation “living laboratory,” it bridges public and private sectors, supports ecosystem research, evidence-based management, and testing of new technologies.Looking forward, SMART-OCEAN lays the foundation for a network of intelligent, interconnected platforms, enabling scalable ocean observation and long-term environmental services for diverse end users.
