A first phase within CoCaRDE was to set the stage with a significant Forum event - the January 09 "CoCaRDE" workshop in Fribourg, funded by the ESF Magellan programme. Five panels have been identified and formulated five major research priorities at the interface of Ocean science and Industrial research:

The young team leaders (PhD and postdoctoral researchers) work jointly over a significant period of time to readily translate these ideas into workable Joint Industry Projects (JIP).

Follow-up actions in capacity building is the workshop and field seminar "Carbonate Mounds in Shallow and Deep Time", co-organized in September 2009 by Oviedo and Geneva universities in the Cantabrian mountains. CoCaRDE-Flanders supports the coordination of this important event, laying the base for a strategy of coupled ocean and continental drilling (IODP and ICDP). Furthermore, it will contribute to the draft of a "vision document" for scientific drilling of beyond 2013. A team of CoCaRDE was prominent at the post-EGU workshop on "Beyond 2013: The Future of European Scientific Drilling Research" in Vienna, a preparation of the IODP INVEST Meeting in Bremen.

CoCaRDE-Flanders will further secure the continuity of Flanders' participation in IODP in the upcoming years, if the Flanders-led IODP 673-Full proposal is successful. The preparation and mainenance of this website also falls into the main tasks of CoCaRDE-Flanders and promotes the exchange of information on academic and industrial research interests.