The EU-fundedODYSSEA Project is getting ready to host its first summer school, on Operational Oceanography for Science, Business and Society, to be held at the campus of the Akontisma Village Hotel, NeaKarvali, near Kavala, Greece, between September 3 and 12, 2018. To date, 23 qualifying trainees from ten countries from all over the Mediterranean and beyond have registered, and several dozen more expressed interest. “The programme intends to train oceanographers and engineers, young researchers, PhD candidates or professionals at the early stages of their professional carriers who are interested in learning to manage the available marine environment data to provide targeted and understandable information to the relevant end users,” Prof. Georgios Sylaios from Democritus University of Thrace noted. “The first ODYSSEA Summer School introduces trainees to all stages of operational oceanography, contributing towards the Blue Growth of the Mediterranean Sea.” Programme objectives specify that upon completion, trainees will have in-depth knowledge on operational oceanography and the latest developments in relevant marine instruments, sensors and forecasting models, and be able to: • Utilise the ODYSSEA project platform for managing and processing data • Apply Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) tools and datasets • Access and use satellite datasets and other marine environment databases Trainees will receive instruction from a body of 14 lecturers specialising in the topics to be covered. These are: Davide Astiaso Garcia (Sapienza University), Laurent Beguery (Senior Maritime Engineer at Alseamar), David De Koning (Deltares), Donna Dimarchopoulou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Dr.Ghada El Serafy (Deltares), Simon Keeble (Blue Lobster IT), Nikolaos Kokkos (Democritus University of Thrace), Glenn Nolan (European Global Ocean Observing System, EuroGOOS), Dr. Anastasia Papadopoulou (Democritus University of Thrace), Dr. Katerina Spanoudaki (IACM-FORTH), Prof. Georgios Sylaios (Democritus University of Thrace), Assoc. Prof. Athanasios Tsikliras (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Konstantinos Zachopoulos (Democritus University of Thrace) and Assoc. Prof. Marco Zavatarelli (University of Bologna). See the Booklet here, http://odysseaplatform.eu/download/ODYSSEA-001-1st-Summer-school-booklet-1.3-Digital.pdf