As a partner of the Digital Twin of The Ocean (DITTO), a programme endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade, ICPO was invited to attend the 1^st DITTO Partner Meeting held virtually and in two sessions on Dec.1 and 2, 2022 respectively. 15 out of 24 formal DITTO partners attended either of the two sessions of the Meeting. The meeting mainly covered the introduction of DITTO and its Working Groups; short presentations from each DITTO partner; as well as an open discussion focusing on ways of support from DITTO to the partners, and the vice versa. Dr. Jose Santos, Executive Director of ICPO, presented on behalf of CLIVAR during this meeting. 

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Martin Visbeck, coordinator of DITTO, briefly introduced the DITTO programme, including its mission, governance, the context with the UN Ocean Decade as well as its featured activities. In general, DITTO is being implemented through seven Working Groups, i.e., Supportive Ocean observations and data systems (WG1); Data analytics and prediction engines (WG2); Data lakes and interoperability (WG3); Interactive layers and visualizations (WG4); Framework – architecture, design and Implementation (WG5); Education, training and capacity building (WG6); and Outreach and communication (WG7). The 1^st Digital Twins of the Ocean Conference was successfully organized on 7-9 May 2022 during the G7 meeting, at London, UK.

15 DITTO partners have briefly introduced their organizations and the fields of joint activities with DITTO at the two sessions. The partners of DITTO are from very diversified groups, ranging from government agencies, research institutes, private sectors, consulting companies, international scientific programme/projects, and etc., and with various focal areas, including infrastructures of DTO, translating ocean observation to science and service to end users, marine spatial planning, data analysis and management, etc. In the CLIVAR presentation, Dr. Santos highlighted the following areas that could potentially collaborate between CLIVAR and DITTO:

• Assisted in preparation of 1st International Digital Twins of the Ocean Summit, & coordinate for virtual satellite activities
• To promote the development of the next generation of ocean and coupled models
• To cultivate new solutions and partnership for an enhanced Ocean Observing Systems, from global to regional and coastal scales (GOOS, IndOOS, TAOS, TPOS2020)
• To facilitate the observation-model-prediction connection, and linking with the new core project on Earth System Modeling and Observation (ESMO)
• Regional forecasting and observational skills; to advance the understanding and predictability of the variation of large-scale modes (e.g. ENSO, AMOC, etc.) and harmful events (e.g. sea level rise, marine heatwave, acidification, deoxygenation, etc.) that have regional and coastal impacts
• To contribute to the capacity building of the new generation of Scientists

During the discussion session, how DITTO could support the partners were mainly discussed, and the major uptakes are as below:

• It was important to understand how the DITTO partners could contribute to the respective DITTO WGs;
• The ‘interoperability’ was a key word highlighted by quite a few DITTO partners;
• The DITTO partners are encouraged to coordinate with Joana to write blogs on the DITTO website highlighting their involvement and contribution to the implementation of DTOs, in particularly the real cases and/or pilot projects;
• The related activities organized by DITTO partners can be shared through the DITTO network;
• More topical meetings in the DITTO partner network will be organized in the future;
• The 2^nd Digital Twins of the Ocean Conference will be organized in Xiamen, China, in November 2023, alongside the World Ocean Week (WOW).