Theme 4 is led by the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz centre for polar and marine research (AWI) in Germany and the the Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), and constitutes experts from the National Oceanographic Centre (NOC), Dublin City University (DCU), the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR), Cyprus Subsea Consulting and Service (CSCS) and Chelsea Technologies (CHELSEA)

It is clear from the scope of Themes 1, 2 and 3 that TechOceanS has very ambitious targets to bring such a wide range of innovations together in a single platform. For this reason, the project’s Theme 4 has been striving to ensure:

• All systems developed in lab settings are able to integrate with one another in the final design of the platform, which itself will function in challenging environments
• The rigorous testing of all individual systems prior to integration to ensure they are each capable of achieving their targets in real-world operating environments
• The processes, protocols and practices being developed over the course of the project are in line with the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Best Practices System and that these practices are assimilated into any designs or future revisions of TechOceanS technologies and methods