FIS
CEI-Marnet launching. (Photo: Universidad de Cadiz)
Universities in Spain, Portugal and Morocco drive marine knowledge
Rectors and vice chancellors from 12 Spanish universities and two higher education institutions in Portugal and Morocco signed the constitution protocol of the International Campus of Excellence of Marine Issues Network (CEI-Marnet), considered as “the largest scientific marine aggregation of Europe”.
The agreement was signed by the rectors of the universities of Cadiz, Vigo, Las Palmas, La Laguna,Murcia, Politécnica de Cartagena, Huelva, Malaga and Almeria, and the vice chancellors of the universities of Granada, Algarve (Portugal) and Abdelmakek Essaâdi (Morocco).
Net proponents hope it will lead international environmental and oceanographic knowledge and research.
The Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), theHigher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), the Royal Observatory of the Navy, the Navy Hydrographic Institute, the Institute of Agrarian Research and Training, Fisheries, Food and Organic Production, the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology and the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute, also joined the university alliance, among others.
According to University of Cádiz rector, Eduardo Gonzalez Mazo, the CEI-Marnet implies a “birth certificate” of a “powerful scientific aggregation,” which is a “step forward” to establish itself as “an international benchmark for the study of the sea.”
The issues to be address by the network will be shipping, shipbuilding, aquaculture, coastal management, knowledge of heritage and finding new sources of energy.
For its part, the rector of the University of Vigo, Salustiano Mato, said that this network is “the largest aggregation for research and development (R & D) in Europe.”
It also has “the greatest potential to lead the marine science in the world”, which is something “natural” in Spain, EFE reported.
Mazo added that the role of research in the constitution of the network is “unquestionable”.
“A reality that has allowed us to establish fruitful decades collaborations among researchers from different campuses of excellence that make up the network and that has materialized in joint research projects funded by the European Union, national, regional and local administrations and companies”, said the rector of the University of Cádiz.
The campus will have a funding of EUR 4.8 million during 2012.
By Analia Murias
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