SeaDataCloud is a project funded by the European Horizon 2020 programme, it involves a network of 56 partners across 29 countries, bordering the European seas. It has started in November 2016 and runs for 4 years. SeaDataCloud has the aim of innovating and improving SeaDataNet, the pan-European infrastructure for ocean and marine data, through its expansion with new data and metadata formats compliant to ISO, OGC and W3C standards, as well as new services. The infrastructure is going to provide more personalised and advanced services by adopting cloud and High Performance Computing (HPC) technology. To achieve such a goal, the cooperation with the partner EUDAT, a European network of computing infrastructures, plays an important role. New kinds of data are intended to supplement the ones available and increase the global coverage. The project team comprises scientists of oceanographic community, in order to answer to their needs, the project is going to offer the SeaDataCloud virtual research environment. It includes on line services for analysis, quality control, data sub-setting, visualisation of retrieved datasets and generation and publication of data products. Furthermore, supporting tools are going to be developed to foster an effective collaborative environment between users. “This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Infrastructures programme, under the grant agreement No 730960”