Marine biological stations provide services and biological resources to science for more than a century. ASSEMBLE Plus will provide scientists from academia, industry and policy with a quality-assured programme of Transnational Access (TA) and Virtual Access (VA) to marine biological stations offering a wide variety of marine ecosystems, unique marine biological resources, state-of-the-art experimental and analytical facilities with integrated workflows, historical observation data, and advanced training opportunities. The goal is to stimulate European excellence in fundamental and applied research in marine biology and ecology, thereby improving our knowledge- and technology-base for the blue economy, policy and education purposes. The ASSEMBLE Plus brings together 32 marine stations and institutes from 14 European and associated countries under the leadership of the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), an ESFRI consortium developed from the previous ASSEMBLE (FP7) partnership, which exhibit a modern research infrastructure and track-record of unique service provision. Five Joint Research Activities involving all partners aim to innovate and/or develop new technologies and/or methodologies to be offered to the users through the TA and VA programmes. A coherent series of Networking Activities (NAs) will strengthen the culture of cooperation within and beyond the consortium partners, providing a benchmark for refined practices of service provision, disseminating interoperable protocols, engaging with novel user communities, and sharing insights into suitable business strategies. The sum of the actions envisaged in ASSEMBLE Plus will ultimately increase the number of users of marine biological stations and shape a novel business strategy perspective, to be based on effective integration and efficient complementarities, resulting in a key contribution to their long-term sustainability.

List of Participants
Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC); National Institute of Biology (NIB); Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ); University of Helsinki (UH); Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (IOPAN); University of Gdansk (UG); National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG); University of Gothenburg (UGOT); University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU); Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR); The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI); Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn di Napoli (SZN); University of Bergen (UiB); Center for Marine Sciences (CCMAR); Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Max Planck Institute for Marine Biology (MPIMM); Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ); Scottish Association for Marine Sciences (SAMS);The University Court of the University of Saint Andrews (USTAN); Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom (MBA); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC-BAS); Marine Science Scotland (MSS); AquaTT (AquaTT).