M-FDC

Within the Danish Ministry of Environment and Food’s organisational structure, the Marine Topic Centre (M-FDC) is placed in the Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University. M-FDC is responsible for the Ministry of the Environment’s assessment of data on estuaries, coastal and open waters.

In addition, M-FDC has the following tasks:

• obligations in relation to agreements made or to be made within the framework of the nation-wide monitoring programme of the aquatic environment (until 31 December 2003: NOVA; hereafter NOVANA) and
• obligations as a national focal point in relation to the European Environment Agency.

The majority of the Topic Centre’s activities are based on the NOVANA programme. Moreover, the Centre participates in the international cooperation on protection and monitoring of the Baltic Sea environment (HELCOM) and the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR).