RESULTS

WAVES 2026 brought together researchers and partners with complementary expertise in marine sciences, observation technologies, robotics, sensors and artificial intelligence. The meeting provided an opportunity to identify priority scientific needs and explore technological solutions to improve the monitoring of the marine environment in the Azores.

Key areas of work included the use of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) (past and future proposals for vehicles: drones  buoys and monitoring stations). 

The goals of the mission on the ocean was successful.

As next steps, it was proposed to organise a collaborative network to document experiences, share resources and develop pilot projects using the available equipment. These pilot projects should support the preparation of future grant applications and a research agenda dedicated to smart and autonomous technologies for biomonitoring and ocean observation in the Azores.

Some interesting ideas:

-- The integration of new sensors for physico-chemical parameters; smart sampling; and the application of artificial intelligence to the analysis of images, video and acoustic data.

-- Passive acoustic monitoring and the study of the marine soundscape were recognised as particularly promising areas, with the potential to support environmental quality assessment, the observation of organisms and the creation of long-term time series.