SmartBay, Ireland: Design and Planning for a Cabled Ocean Observatory off the West coast of Ireland

The SmartBay, Ireland, concept arose from contacts with representatives of other observatories and from ongoing strategic collaboration between Ireland and Newfoundland. It has been conceived as a catalytic infrastructure project to provide a Test and Demonstration platform for emerging technologies for marine monitoring. The backbone of this platform will be a fibre optic and power cable network linking seabed observation stations for real-time oceanographic, marine monitoring and other instruments. SmartBay features as a key initiative in SeaChange, the Irish Marine Research Programme, 2007-2013, and has been adopted as a specific measure in the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation.