Kim de Mutsert, Marta Coll, Elizabeth A. Fulton, Joe Buszowski, Jeroen Steenbeek, Natalia Serpetti, Chiara Piroddi, Villy Christensen, Maria Grazia Pennino, Vanessa Stelzenmüller, Michael Spence, Antonios D. Mazaris, Yunne-Jai Shin, Diego Macías, David Chagaris, Giovanni Romagnoni, Kristy A. Lewis, Stelios Katsanevakis, Greig Oldford, Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España), European Commission, Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Agence Nationale de la Recherche (France), Università Politecnica delle Marche [Ancona] (UNIVPM), Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia (UBC), Department of Marine Sciences [Aegean], University of the Aegean, MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation (UMR MARBEC), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), European Commission - Joint Research Centre [Ispra] (JRC), Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), University of Cape Town, Ecopath International Initiative Research Association, University of Florida [Gainesville] (UF), Instituto de Ciencias del Mar de Barcelona (ICM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research (CSIRO-MAR), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation [Canberra] (CSIRO), Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania [Hobart, Australia] (UTAS), University of Central Florida [Orlando] (UCF), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, University of Southern Mississippi (USM), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Montpellier (UM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo, Instituto Espagňol de Oceanografia (IEO), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas [Madrid] (CSIC), Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), COISPA TORRE A MARE ITA, Partenaires IRSTEA, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA), Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science [Lowestoft] (CEFAS), and Thünen-Institute of Sea Fisheries
11 pages, 7 figures, Marine Ecosystem Models (MEMs) provide a deeper understanding of marine ecosystem dynamics. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development has highlighted the need to deploy these complex mechanistic spatial-temporal models to engage policy makers and society into dialogues towards sustainably managed oceans. From our shared perspective, MEMs remain underutilized because they still lack formal validation, calibration, and uncertainty quantifications that undermines their credibility and uptake in policy arenas. We explore why these shortcomings exist and how to enable the global modelling community to increase MEMs’ usefulness. We identify a clear gap between proposed solutions to assess model skills, uncertainty, and confidence and their actual systematic deployment. We attribute this gap to an underlying factor that the ecosystem modelling literature largely ignores: technical issues. We conclude by proposing a conceptual solution that is cost-effective, scalable and simple, because complex spatial-temporal marine ecosystem modelling is already complicated enough, MC and JS acknowledge funding from the EuroMarine 2018 call for Foresight Workshops and Working Groups proposals. JS, MC and MGP acknowledge the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation grant agreement N° PID2020-118097RB-I00 (ProOceans). JS, MC and YJS acknowledge the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements N° 869300 (FutureMARES) and N° 817578 (TRIATLAS). ADM acknowledges the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements N° 869300 (FutureMARES). MC acknowledges the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to the Institute of Marine Science. GR acknowledges the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Humboldt Tipping project 01LC1823D). VC acknowledges support through NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN-2019-04901. VC and GO acknowledge funding through the NSERC Mitacs Accelerate Fellowship (IT09266), IOF Ocean Leaders Fellowship, and DFO. YJS acknowledges funding support from the Biodiversa and Belmont Forum project SOMBEE (BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme, ANR contract n°ANR-18-EBI4-0003-01), and the Pew marine fellows programme