Our work

Powered by the Ocean Data Platform and shaped by the challenge, we work with partners to tackle their unresolved challenges, applying the technology of ODP to meet their needs.

  • The challenge

    Marine-protection decisions around Brazil’s Vitória-Trindade Seamount Chain require evidence from physical, ecological, oceanographic, human-use and governance data. Important knowledge gaps remain, particularly in the deeper parts of the ecosystem.

    What changed

    Decision-makers can work from a stronger, shared evidence base for the Vitória-Trindade Chain, bringing existing environmental and human-use data together while making critical gaps visible. This supports the pathway toward stronger marine protection and prepares the evidence base for new deep-sea observations from future research.

    Sector
    Governance / Conservation
    Partners
    Conservation International Brazil · HUB Ocean, within a wider Brazilian science and conservation collaboration
    Data on ODP
    Physical · ecological · oceanographic · human-use · governance data relevant to the Vitória-Trindade Chain.

  • The challenge

    Commercial fishing vessels collect valuable hydroacoustic data, but turning those observations into continuous, interoperable data flows for science and fisheries management requires shared infrastructure, quality assurance and trusted rules for sharing and reuse.

    What changed

    Hydroacoustic observations collected routinely by fishing vessels can become a trusted new data stream for science and fisheries management. The project will standardise and share these observations through ODP, with AI processing at the edge, helping turn commercial fishing fleets into a distributed ocean-observing network.

    Sector
    Fisheries
    Partners
    FHF · Institute of Marine Research · Kongsberg Discovery · Norwegian fishing companies · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Hydroacoustic data from fishing vessels and autonomous platforms.

  • The challenge

    Protecting and restoring the ocean requires more than world-class science. New knowledge needs to be connected with existing data, made usable beyond individual missions, and translated into evidence that can support decisions and lasting protection.

    What changed

    HUB Ocean and REV Ocean are sister organizations on a joint mission to protect and restore the ocean, combining complementary capabilities from sea to shore. REV Ocean brings world-class research, exploration and data generation; HUB Ocean brings the Ocean Data Platform, data management, decision-support and capacity building. Together, we can turn ocean discovery into knowledge that is accessible, reusable and able to support protection long after a research mission ends.

    Sector
    Governance / Conservation
    Partners
    REV Ocean · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    REV Ocean mission data alongside existing global, national and local ocean datasets, creating a shared evidence base for research and marine protection

  • The challenge

    Coastal management depends on information spread across fragmented datasets, systems and organisations. For a municipality, finding and combining the right marine data can make it difficult to build a complete evidence base for planning and management.

    What changed

    Coastal information is being brought together into a shared, searchable data foundation, making it easier for municipal users to find and explore relevant evidence. The work also tests AI-assisted search and decision-support approaches, exploring how shared ocean data infrastructure and AI can make complex coastal information more accessible for future planning and management.

    Sector
    Governance / Coastal management
    Partners
    Arendal Municipality · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Coastal and marine datasets relevant to Arendal, including local planning and environmental information and selected municipal water and wastewater operational data

  • The challenge

    Marine spatial planning needs information not only on ecosystems, but also on the human activities putting pressure on them.

    What changed

    HUB Ocean provided AIS-based shipping data used in WIO Symphony, an ecosystem-based marine spatial planning tool for the Western Indian Ocean. The data helped map shipping activity and associated pressures, including an estimate of underwater noise.

    Sector
    Governance / Marine spatial planning
    Partners
    WIOMSA · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    AIS-based shipping data, used to map shipping activity and associated pressures, including an estimate of underwater noise.

  • The challenge

    Working with ocean data requires practical skills across the whole workflow, from finding and understanding datasets to preparing, analysing, citing and sharing them. Those skills are difficult to build through theory alone.

    What changed

    Students can learn the full ocean-data workflow using real datasets rather than simplified teaching material. Around 80 University of Bergen marine ecology students are spending 14 weeks finding, understanding, preparing, analysing and sharing real data from research, government and industry.

    Sector
    Research / Education
    Partners
    University of Bergen · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Real ocean, climate and biodiversity datasets from research, government and industry.

  • The challenge

    Students need practical experience working with real ocean data and the tools and workflows they will encounter beyond the classroom.

    What changed

    Around 80 marine ecology students at the University of Bergen are using the Ocean Data Platform as part of their studies, learning practical skills in finding, managing, analysing and working with real ocean datasets through ODP Academy.

    Sector
    Research / Education
    Partners
    University of Bergen · HUB Ocean

  • The challenge

    Whale-protection measures exist across different jurisdictions, but were difficult to use alongside vessel routes and other operational data. Shipping companies needed a simpler way to see where speed restrictions, routing measures and areas to avoid intersect with operations.

    What changed

    Whale-protection measures that previously had to be interpreted from a chart can now be searched, analysed and combined with vessel routes and other ocean data. API access also means the data can flow into third-party applications and operational workflows, making it easier to use in voyage planning and other decisions.

    Sector
    Shipping
    Partners
    World Shipping Council · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Mandatory and voluntary whale-protection measures, including speed restrictions, routing measures and areas to avoid.

  • The challenge

    Offshore industry operates sophisticated infrastructure, vessels, sensors and subsea technology in some of the least understood parts of the ocean. The opportunity is to use that existing capability not only for industrial operations, but to generate better environmental knowledge and help address gaps in deep-water observation and understanding.

    What changed

    Offshore infrastructure can become part of a much broader system for understanding and improving the ocean. OceanRise brings subsea technology together with environmental monitoring, ocean data, research and ecosystem knowledge, creating a pathway from observing the ocean, to understanding it, identifying where action is needed, and monitoring and verifying change. Work in Brazil is connecting this approach to deep-water monitoring, research collaboration and better access to environmental data.

    Sector
    Energy / Subsea
    Partners
    SLB OneSubsea · HUB Ocean · MarBrasil, with wider Brazilian and Norwegian research collaboration
    Data on ODP
    Environmental, industrial and sensor data, with Brazilian datasets and SLB OneSubsea data being scoped for integration and sharing through ODP.

  • The challenge

    Offshore wind projects generate valuable ecological monitoring data, but much of its wider value depends on whether it can be discovered, combined and reused beyond the project that collected it.

    What changed

    Ecological observations generated around an offshore wind farm can be reused beyond the project that collected them. Making bird, bat, fish, acoustic, telemetry and abiotic data FAIR and accessible allows researchers, government and industry to combine those measurements with other North Sea data and build a broader understanding of offshore wind and marine ecosystems.

    Sector
    Energy / Offshore wind
    Partners
    Ecowende · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Bird and bat observations · fish, bat and songbird telemetry · acoustic data · abiotic data.

  • The challenge

    Environmental assessments are often centred on individual surveys and development sites, while understanding ecological sensitivity requires a broader regional view. Data availability, resolution and licensing restrictions can also prevent valuable datasets from being analysed together.

    What changed

    Environmental assessment can move beyond individual survey areas to see ecological sensitivity across the Greater North Sea. By combining fish, seabird, marine mammal, seagrass, cold-water coral, protected-area and other datasets, the analysis produced a regional nature index showing patterns of relative ecological sensitivity and providing wider context for environmental decision-making. It also identified where licensing, resolution and data availability still constrain that picture.

    Sector
    Energy
    Partners
    TotalEnergies EP Denmark · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Fish · seabirds · marine mammals · seagrass · cold-water corals · marine protected areas · Important Marine Mammal Areas.

  • The challenge

    Valuable Brazilian environmental and regulatory data can be fragmented and difficult to discover and reuse alongside other ocean information.

    What changed

    Brazilian environmental and regulatory data that can be difficult to access is now available in structured collections on ODP, making it easier to discover, combine and reuse for research, conservation, environmental monitoring and marine management. OceanPact is sharing collections that cover environmental emergency response, marine-mammal observations, beach-monitoring biodiversity, environmental monitoring from offshore seismic activities and Brazilian protected areas.

    Sector
    Energy / Marine services
    Partners
    OceanPact · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Environmental emergency response · marine-mammal observations · beach-monitoring biodiversity · environmental monitoring from offshore seismic activities · Brazilian protected areas.

  • The challenge

    Industry works in deep and far-offshore waters that scientific mapping has not yet reached, but the operational data it collects rarely gets to scientists or decision-makers. In Brazil, that leaves gaps in the ocean knowledge needed to protect it.

    What changed

    OceanPact and HUB Ocean launched a pledge at a COP30 roundtable in Belém, bringing together industry, science, policy, philanthropy and technology. Ocean-related companies that join commit to identify and responsibly share relevant data following FAIR principles, working with national agencies, research institutions and scientific partners, and receive guidance on data mapping, governance and responsible sharing. The aim is a long-term, nationally scaled model for open ocean data collaboration that supports Brazil’s progress toward the global 30×30 protection target. Shared TGS data has already increased available information on marine mammals in one section of Brazil’s ocean territory by 50%.

    Sector
    Cross-sector / Energy
    Partners
    OceanPact · HUB Ocean · Solstad Offshore · TGS · Mercuria · SLB OneSubsea · Equinor · AKOFS Offshore, supported by Minderoo Foundation and Accenture Nordics
    Data on ODP
    Industry-held ocean data shared under FAIR principles, including TGS marine mammal data for Brazil’s ocean territory.

  • The challenge

    The ocean is poorly represented in many investor datasets, making it difficult to understand how corporate assets and activities interact with sensitive marine ecosystems.

    What changed

    Investors can begin screening corporate assets against ocean-sensitive habitats and biodiversity areas using location-specific nature data. Combining Ocean Sensitive Areas with asset-level information creates a pathway for ocean data to support screening, risk heat-mapping, stewardship and reporting.

    Sector
    Finance
    Partners
    GIST Impact · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Ocean Sensitive Areas and marine biodiversity data, combined with asset-level corporate information.

  • The challenge

    Offshore energy assets continuously collect valuable ocean and weather observations for operational purposes, but their wider value depends on making them accessible and reusable beyond the systems in which they were originally collected.

    What changed

    Ocean and weather observations from six offshore assets on the Norwegian Continental Shelf are openly available through ODP, turning operational measurements into a reusable resource for scientists, engineers and other ocean users. The data covers around 3,000 time-series attributes, including waves, currents, wind, cloud and temperature observations, and can support environmental monitoring, climate research and further innovation.

    Sector
    Energy
    Partners
    Aker BP · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Metocean time series from Ivar Aasen · Skarv · Valhall · Alvheim · Edvard Grieg · Ula, including wave parameters · ocean currents · wind characteristics · temperature · cloud data.

  • The challenge

    Shipping companies need to understand how their operations intersect with marine ecosystems, looking beyond decarbonisation to other environmental pressures and nature-related impacts.

    What changed

    Vessel movements can be viewed against sensitive marine habitats rather than assessed only through traditional efficiency and emissions metrics. Combining KCC's AIS data with biodiversity layers creates a basis for identifying where operational activity overlaps sensitive nature and where operational choices may help reduce exposure.

    Sector
    Shipping
    Partners
    Klaveness Combination Carriers · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    AIS vessel data · biodiversity and habitat-sensitivity layers.

  • The challenge

    Large areas of the ocean remain observationally sparse, while people working at sea and living along coastlines regularly encounter marine wildlife, pollution and other conditions that are valuable to document.

    What changed

    People working and spending time at sea can contribute observations from places where scientific monitoring is sparse. Wildlife and pollution sightings captured on ordinary phones become geolocated ocean data that can help fill observational gaps and be reused alongside other information on ODP.

    Sector
    Research / Citizen science
    Partners
    HUB Ocean · Mercuria · Minerva Bunkering
    Data on ODP
    Marine wildlife sightings · marine pollution observations.

  • The challenge

    Global shipping operations intersect with very different marine ecosystems, making it difficult to identify where nature impacts and risks are most material and where action should focus.

    What changed

    A global shipping company can systematically identify where its operations interact with sensitive nature, use those findings to prioritise locations for deeper assessment, and connect the evidence to biodiversity strategy, mitigation and the pathway toward nature-related targets and reporting.

    Sector
    Shipping
    Partners
    Wallenius Wilhelmsen · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Shipping routes · protected and sensitive marine areas · biodiversity and habitat data.

  • The challenge

    Researchers and practitioners across the Western Indian Ocean need practical ways to find, manage, analyse and share ocean data, while strengthening local-to-regional data workflows and collaboration.

    What changed

    HUB Ocean and WIOMSA have used hands-on ODP training to move users from data discovery through management and cloud-based analysis. The programme connects regional capacity building with practical ocean-data workflows that participants can apply in research and marine planning.

    Sector
    Research / Capacity building
    Partners
    WIOMSA · HUB Ocean, with engagement across the wider Western Indian Ocean science and marine-planning community.
    Data on ODP
    Regional and global ocean datasets, plus users' own private, shared or published data.

  • The challenge

    Financial institutions need to understand how shipping activity intersects with ocean nature across portfolios, and whether the resulting exposure stems from the structure and geography of an industry or from operational choices that companies can influence.

    What changed

    Nature exposure in shipping can be analysed at a scale that helps distinguish patterns driven by geography and industry structure from those influenced by routes and vessel behaviour. That distinction gives financial institutions a more useful basis for understanding where risks require broader responses and where operational decisions may matter.

    Sector
    Finance / Shipping
    Partners
    DNB · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    AIS vessel movement · coral reefs · cold-water corals · seagrass · mangroves · seamounts · marine protected areas · Important Marine Mammal Areas · management layers.

  • The challenge

    Years of valuable biodiversity and oceanographic observations are collected during commercial offshore surveys, but the data can remain distributed across projects and formats and unavailable for wider scientific use.

    What changed

    Years of marine mammal, turtle and oceanographic observations collected during commercial offshore surveys are now available for scientific reuse rather than remaining locked in project files. The biodiversity contribution increased the volume of comparable observations available in OBIS for the same geography by 50%, helping fill gaps in knowledge of Brazil's offshore ecosystems.

    Sector
    Energy / Geoscience
    Partners
    TGS · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Marine mammal and turtle observations · CTD profiles.

  • The challenge

    Commercial echosounders generate an enormous record of the Antarctic ecosystem, but the raw acoustic files are complex and require specialised processing before scientists can work with them.

    What changed

    More than 500,000 acoustic files collected by commercial krill vessels can now be used to investigate the Southern Ocean ecosystem. The data has already supported published research on encounters between krill predators and fishing vessels, with derived research data made available again through ODP, demonstrating how operational industry data can become new scientific knowledge.

    Sector
    Fisheries
    Partners
    Aker QRILL Company · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    EK60/EK80 echosounder data · acoustic krill observations · derived research datasets.

  • The challenge

    Salmon-lice information is fragmented across Norwegian aquaculture, consuming time in data collection and making it harder to compare conditions and interventions across production sites.

    What changed

    Fish-health professionals can work from one shared data foundation covering more than 1,000 aquaculture production sites, rather than repeatedly assembling fragmented information themselves. Combining lice counts and treatments with environmental and production data makes comparison easier and creates a stronger foundation for understanding which interventions work under which conditions.

    Sector
    Fisheries / Aquaculture
    Partners
    OPS Sjømat · HUB Ocean, supported by the Norwegian Seafood Federation and the Norwegian Seafood Association
    Data on ODP
    Lice counts · treatment data · temperature · currents · preventive measures · production conditions.

  • The challenge

    Ocean digital twins depend on data and models from many different organisations and systems. Technical, legal and cultural barriers can prevent those resources from being used together.

    What changed

    Data and models from different digital-twin projects can be connected rather than operating as isolated systems. Open standards, APIs and scalable data pipelines make scientific, industrial and citizen-science data more interoperable and reusable across digital-twin applications.

    Sector
    Research / Digital twins
    Partners
    ILIAD consortium · HUB Ocean
    Data on ODP
    Scientific · industrial · citizen-science datasets.

  • The challenge

    European ocean data and analytical services sit across many different infrastructures, making interoperability essential.

    What changed

    HUB Ocean joined the 40-partner Blue-Cloud consortium, which is building a federated European ecosystem for FAIR and open ocean data and analytical services. HUB Ocean contributed work around platform interoperability and metadata standardization.

    Sector
    Research
    Partners
    Blue-Cloud 2026 consortium (40 partners) · HUB Ocean

  • The challenge

    Research-vessel expeditions generate complex datasets that need infrastructure to be received, managed and shared.

    What changed

    The entire Polarstern PS85 expedition dataset was ingested into the Ocean Data Platform, helping validate ODP’s technical capabilities for receiving and sharing research-vessel data. Historical expedition datasets including HACON and WELLFATE were also used in this work.

    Sector
    Research
    Data on ODP
    The full Polarstern PS85 expedition dataset, alongside historical expedition datasets including HACON and WELLFATE.

  • The challenge

    Finance needs credible ways to understand how economic activity impacts, and depends on, ocean nature.

    What changed

    Supported by the Velux Foundation, Making Oceans Count II developed blue indicators and metrics to measure impacts and dependencies on ocean nature, with a particular focus on the finance sector. The work focused on Denmark and the Nordics, while aiming for wider global relevance.

    Sector
    Finance
    Supported by
    Velux Foundation

Related products and services

Helping companies locate and act on ocean nature impacts and dependencies

The challenge

Important nature data about the ocean is not reaching the people who need it most. Data gaps and scattered information limit knowledge, which makes it harder to measure and reduce human impacts on ocean ecosystems. There is no global dataset mapping vital ocean ecosystems.

What it is

Ocean Sensitive Areas are global data products mapping critical marine habitats and species, enabling impact assessments of human activities. They combine and harmonise diverse ocean datasets in a standardised approach that scales from local to global.

Impact-ready use cases

Nature-based reporting. Financial institutions and companies assess their risk to ocean biodiversity. Asset data is overlaid on Ocean Sensitive Areas and assessed against a sensitivity matrix, producing risk metrics for each ecosystem component.

Designating areas for protection. Governments and NGOs identify where protection is needed, based on where nature is and the impact of different pressures.

Environmental Impact Assessments. Companies assessing development sites optimise site selection by minimising risk to sensitive areas.

Built for
Policymakers, industry leaders and scientists
Coverage
Global, scaling from local to global
Built on
Diverse ocean datasets, harmonised and assessed with a sensitivity matrix

The challenge

Offshore industries hold valuable environmental data, but it sits in project-specific formats and silos, with unclear ownership and poor interoperability with existing ocean data. Managing it takes time and money, and many companies lack the knowledge and resources to share it.

What it is

Ocean Data Harmonized is a HUB Ocean service that makes ocean data usable for reporting, operations and sharing, and accessible for science in FAIR formats. It runs in three steps: data advisory on standards and metadata, data transformation and harmonisation, and impactful sharing through the Ocean Data Platform and global data repositories.

Built for
Offshore industries, such as offshore wind and energy geoscience
Partners
Ecowende · PGS · TGS · Aker BioMarine
Examples
15 years of PGS survey data from Brazil · around 10 years of Aker BioMarine echosounder data from krill fishing missions in the Southern Ocean
Getting started on the Ocean Data Platform: Visit our Webinar library Documentation

HUB Ocean is a member of the Ocean Decade Corporate Data Group

The Corporate Data Group has already made a great contribution to the Decade, unlocking industrial data and pushing it to flagship repositories like OBIS, GBIF and EMODnet.

The gap3%

of ocean biodiversity data in global repositories comes from the private sector.

Delivered

Bathymetry Data Sharing Guideline

A practical framework for companies to share seabed mapping data with platforms like GEBCO and Seabed 2030.

Coming soon

Marine Mammal Observations Guideline

Helping companies share biodiversity observations collected during offshore operations.

Report

Tides of Transparency

The first global mapping of industrial ocean data sharing, co-authored by HUB Ocean.

Types of nature positive initiatives that HUB Ocean has contributed to and helps execute on through real world use cases with our private sector partners

Indicators & metrics

State of Nature indicators and metrics

Nature Positive Initiative

Consensus building on a credible, practical set of indicators and metrics to measure the state of nature and help secure nature-positive outcomes.
Sector guidance

Marine transport and cruise lines

Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

Draft sector guidance, January 2025. Open for consultation and feedback.