What is Microplastics

Capturing the complexities of the common research challenges both the EU and US face is a goal of public policies when using as a framework the global risks posed by marine litter, particularly plastics. To turn the theory of industry 5.0 into practice, the full participation of all actors concerned with the use of ocean space could be useful to design research links between the initiatives launched by the European Commission and the American Federal Government. The chapter indicates that while a common data model is defined by the US Federal Agency specialized in dealing with the marine environment, the European focus is on interoperability between State Members. The research raises awareness on the marine plastic problem by recognizing that ocean literacy is critical to educate the public. Moreover, an examination concerning the discovery of these data (where this kind of marine litter data can be found), their access (confidentiality, intellectual propriety rights), and use (by the public sector, fisheries sector) are also offered in this study.