The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) has joined the annual General Assembly of the AQUARIUS EU’s project that took place this week at the headquarters of the Finnish Environment Institute, in Helsinki, Finland. This initiative seeks to facilitate in a coordinated manner a multidisciplinary set of integrated research infrastructures in order to address strategic challenges for the long-term sustainability of seas, oceans and unique freshwater ecosystems.
The event brought together representatives of the 41 member partners under the Marine Institute (Ireland) coordination. Through various thematic sessions, they have carried out an exhaustive review and assessment of the current status of the different work packages, activities and objectives of the project, and have planned the set of actions for the coming months, both from a scientific-technical and management perspective.
As a pioneering initiative in Europe, AQUARIUS combines and offers research infrastructures to facilitate the work of researchers and strategic stakeholders, focused on the challenges and opportunities for European marine and freshwater systems. To this end, AQUARIUS provides a total of 57 research-infrastructure services that include research vessels, mobile marine observation platforms, aircraft, drones, satellite, sensors, fixed freshwater and marine observatories and test sites, experimental facilities, and sophisticated data infrastructures.
PLOCAN contributes as a partner to the AQUARIUS project by offering its test bench capabilities, fleet of autonomous vehicles (VIMAS), high-frequency radar network and the Glider School training initiative. All of them are available to the entire international scientific community through Transnational Access (TNA) calls that the project makes available through a centralized portal.
AQUARIUS supports the development phase of the EU Mission strategy on restoring our oceans and waters by 2030, the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership, the European Green Deal, and international climate initiatives. In turn, it represents an essential component to achieve the European Digital Twin of the Ocean and the UN Decade for Ocean Sciences.
For more detailed information, visit project’s website.
The AQUARIUS project (Aqua Research Infrastructure Services for the health and protection of our unique, oceans, seas and freshwater ecosystems) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Program under the Grant Agreement No. 101130915.
