A new Horizon Europe project, led by TU Delft, brings together international partners to investigate how climate change is impacting the marine environment and what this means for the way we depend on and use the ocean. A digital twin of the ocean is to provide answers.
EU-INTERCHANGE (European Regional and Coastal Seas in a Rapid Changing Climate) was granted around EUR 5 million by the Horizon programme of the European Commission and started in October 2025. TU Delft is heading the project, which also includes the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Institute of Accelerating Systems and Applications, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Edinburgh, TERNA and Sidroco Holdings.
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Digital twin
The consortium will create a high-resolution digital twin of the ocean to assess climate change impacts across Europe and the Pan-Arctic. Combining advanced wave, ocean, biogeochemical, and nearshore models, it will deliver local-scale insights — such as sea salinity and wave energy — at a 2 km resolution.
Customised models will evaluate adaptation and mitigation strategies for coastal resilience, impacts of sea level rise and blue economy sectors like aquaculture and marine renewables. The project will also develop a large open-access database (1995–2100) including different emission scenarios, automated analysis tools, and high-fidelity downscaling (<500 m), with all results integrated into Copernicus (the EU’s Earth observation programme) to support research and decision-making.
‘A balanced water-food-energy nexus’
George Lavidas, project lead of the EU-INTERCHANGE consortium and Assistant Professor of Marine Renewable Energies at TU Delft: ‘This project offers valuable insights into how biochemistry and wave conditions will evolve under different climate change scenarios. This is crucial knowledge for maintaining a balanced water-food-energy nexus.’
Consider for example developing so-called sea farms: temperature and salinity are essential biochemical factors when starting aquaculture. And when constructing offshore wind farms, it’s important to predict the power of waves in a changing climate, in order to design turbines that are suitable for the load from the waves they will have to endure.
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Machine learning providing solutions
The project incorporates a high degree of automation. It’s not only about retrieving information. Machine learning will also suggest engineering solutions. In case a flood barrier or wind turbine cannot withstand the projected wave conditions in a given scenario, the framework will directly identify the cause and propose an engineering solution.
While it may not be the silver bullet (economic and social considerations are still needed), Lavidas aims to enable well-informed decisions based on facts. Hereby boosting renewable energy, coastal safety and food production.
Use cases
The project will also develop several use cases, including the impact on the Oosterschelde storm surge barrier and the ports in Brest and Limassol. It will also examine marine renewable energy such as offshore wind farms, wave energy, in Alexandroupouli (Greece), Hollandse Kust Noord (Netherlands), and Shabla-Kaliakra (Bulgaria). Finally, the food nexus will be evaluated with cases in Habranden (Norway), Fellesholmen (Barents Sea) and Kefalonia (Greece).
The first results are expected by mid-2026, the project will run for four years in total.
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