The IORIS platform has been designed to become the primary tool for information sharing and event management at sea among the coastal countries of the Indian Ocean Region. From the beginning, the European CRIMARIO project has focused on ownership and management of the platform by the region and has worked closely with many regional partners on the concept and design. In pursuing this goal, CRIMARIO approached the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) in respect to legal ownership of IORIS license which includes four of the five partner countries of CRIMARIO (Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles) and co-manages the MASE program.
During a meeting with IOC President Vincent Mériton, Vice-President of Seychelles, representatives of CRIMARIO, François-Régis Cloup-Mandavialle, coordinator and David Nattrass, IORIS project manager, presented the achievements of IORIS and the proposal for transfer of ownership.
This offer was received very positively and transmitted by Vincent Mériton to the IOC Extraordinary Council of Ministers held on February 23 in Mahé (Seychelles). At the end of this meeting, President Meriton confirmed by mail the validation of IORIS ‘transfer of ownership to the IOC; he wrote in particular:
I am therefore pleased to inform you that the members of the Extraordinary Council of Ministers have validated your proposal.
In parallel to the implementation of IORIS with an intensive program of exercises, the CRIMARIO team will work with the IOC secretariat, the MASE program and the two regional centers (RCOC and RMIFC) to define the transfer conditions, specific terms of governance and administration : acceptance of new members, role of both centers, access management, etc…
Phase II development, which takes into account user feedback, the Cutlass exercise, and the transfer of ownership will be completed by December 2019.