The SSC advises on the overall scientific policy, direction and management of the project to be decided by the MGA. It meets annually at Consortium meetings and are chaired by the Coordinator.

Composition of the scientific steering committee:

Coordinator: Jean-Pierre Gattuso (CNRS)

Theme leaders: Jelle Bijma (AWI), James Orr (CEA), Ulf Riebesell (IFM-GEOMAR) and Carol Turley (PML)

Work package leaders: Harry Elderfield (UCAM), Anja Engel (AWI), Marion Gehlen (CEA), D. Iglesias-Rodríguez (SOTON-SOES), Fortunat Joos (UBern), Jack Middelburg (KNAW), Andreas Oschlies (IFM-GEOMAR), Hans-Otto Pörtner (AWI), Philippe Saugier (PSIEP), Reiner Schlitzer (AWI), Frede Thingstad (UiB), Toby Tyrrell (NERC).

Additional member: Christoph Heinze (UiB) as coordinator of CARBOOCEAN IP

The responsibilities of the SSC include:

• acting on the initiative of the Executive Board (EB) on issues related to fulfilling the scientific objectives
• assessing scientific progress against the objectives and, when necessary, making recommendations to the EB
• approving all reports and implementation plans to the European Commission
• providing advice on any call for and evaluation of new contractors, participants or partners that might be needed to finalize the project’s objectives
• linking with the International Scientific Advisory Panel and approbating any recommendation from this panel
• giving recommendations to the Executive Board on any scientific aspects it foresees as requiring ethical considerations