Back in 2004, the core group of ARCOPOL partners started working together in the frame of EROCIPS project (Emergency Response to coastal Oil, Chemical and Inert Pollution from Shipping. INTERREG IIIB, 2004-2007). EROCIPS’ achievements ranged from the development of forecasting models, risk assessment and guidance on managing volunteers, to the production of training materials and the establishment of ecological monitoring programmes.

Having EROCIPS as the grounds, the series of ARCOPOL projects started in 2009. The success of the first ARCOPOL (2009-2012) facilitated the continuity of this strategy longer in time, being made a reality in the projects ARCOPOLplus (2012-2014) and ARCOPOLplatform (2014-2015).

All ARCOPOL projects share the same final aim, which is reinforcing the preparedness and response to oil and HNS spills in the Atlantic regions. However, from project to project, both the aspects addressed and the strategy used were adapted to the actual needs identified by the partnership.

Very briefly, ARCOPOL focused on the elaboration of guides and tools to support response operations. Afterwards, In ARCOPOLplus we kept on updating and upgrading ARCOPOL results, but we also made a special effort on innovation, training and technology transfer. Nowadays in ARCOPOLplatform, our strategy consists of stablishing a Platform both for the capitalisation of all ARCOPOL projects results and for public and private collaboration in the scope of the response to maritime pollution.

All EROCIPS, ARCOPOL, ARCOPOLplus and ARCOPOLplatform results can be downloaded from the section “Resources” on the main menu.