The European Union has funded large scale initiatives to protect, secure and develop the potential of marine and coastal environments. The aim of MYCOAST is to enhance the capability of risk management systems in the Atlantic region by improving co-operation between, observational and forecasting systems, and end users. This project aims to build a coordinated Atlantic Coastal Operational Observatory in the Atlantic Area joining capabilities from all the five countries and from existing cross-border cooperation activities, all targeted towards the improvement of coastal monitoring and forecasting tools to support threat and emergency response. The technical networking and specific synergies will strengthen the use and the dissemination of downstream applications of the Copernicus Marine and Environmental Monitoring Service (CMEMS) in order to address the common challenge of resilience of the coastal to risk. The proposed data management tools will promote information sharing and interoperability between coastal observatories and the common European information sharing systems. To ensure effective implementation, the risk management tools will be developed and validated jointly with the key actors involved in managing and preventing coastal risks like flooding and coastal erosion, those in managing water quality issues, and those responsible for managing maritime safety and response to pollution incidents. Finally MYCOAST will improve the awareness of these risks in the Atlantic Area, and identify and promote opportunities for the private sector.