"Taking benefit from the previous and on-going efforts in the GMES context, the DOLPHIN project intends to develop the key technological and operational gap-filling innovations, leading in the mid-term to a full and sustainable operational exploitation of Earth Observation Satellites capabilities in the EU and MS maritime policies applications.DOLPHIN aims at developing new tools providing effective improvements of the state-of-the-art capabilities in Maritime Surveillance with respect to Users’ real needs in particular through filling their present technological gaps.The identification of these technological gaps is made easier by the fact that the DOLPHIN partners have developed a solid experience through a number of past and on going initiatives, such as LIMES, MARISS, MarCoast, EMSA CSN, in which a wide European Users community in the Maritime Surveillance sector has already taken an active part in identifying application needs and technological gaps.DOLPHIN will respond to the specific Users need, focused on Users’ missions, through the development of Decision Support Modules (DSM) which will integrate innovative Software Tools, aiming at filling the identified technological gaps according to specific policy-driven requirements and scenarios.Five policy areas have been selected as being in most need of improvement: Border Surveillance, Traffic Safety, Environmental Protection, Fisheries Control and Search and Rescue. Each policy area has categories of users that are quite different, so each policy area will be addressed through a specific DSM.Users will play an important role in the consolidation of the operational scenarios, to ensure that they are significant and representative of the complexity of the requirements. They will also be involved in the validation of the Operational Scenarios, when modules will be integrated in operational Services Chains and their actual effectiveness will be measured on the basis of the given definition."