UNOC3 Side Event launches strategic partnership for Ocean Research and Capacity Building
A significant step forward in international marine science cooperation was achieved on June 12 as Portuguese-speaking African Small Island Developing States (SIDS) committed to establishing Centers of Excellence in Marine Sciences. The initiative, presented during the official UNOC3 side event “Strengthening Marine Science and Capacity Building through the Establishment of Centers of Excellence in Portuguese-Speaking African SIDS,” was led by Cabo Verde’s Ministry of the Sea and Instituto do Mar (IMar) with support from the AIR Centre.
The comprehensive partnership brings together four island nations—Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Timor-Leste—alongside UNESCO’s SIDS Section and Germany’s GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The collaboration aims to leverage existing scientific knowledge, regional infrastructure, and international cooperation to address critical oceanic challenges facing these vulnerable island communities.
The session gathered distinguished participation from key government officials and scientific leaders, underscoring the initiative’s strategic importance. Ministers from three African nations participated: H.E. Jorge Santos, Minister of Sea of Cabo Verde; H.E. Nilda Borges da Mata, Minister of Environment, Youth, Sustainable Tourism of São Tomé and Príncipe; and H.E. Viriato Soares Cassamá, Minister of Environment, Biodiversity, and Climate Action of Guinea-Bissau.
International organizations were represented by Mr. Vidar Helgesen, Executive Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanography Commission (IOC) and Assistant Director-General of UNESCO, and Professor Dr. Katja Matthes, Director of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The AIR Centre’s Executive Director Miguel Miranda and Yara Rodrigues, Board Member of Instituto do Mar – IMar (Cabo Verde), also participated in the discussions.
The initiative focuses on five strategic areas critical to building sustainable marine science capacity: strategic partnerships for blue science and innovation, youth capacity building with a dedicated focus on gender equality, evidence-based decision making for marine management, enhanced access to marine data and technologies, and fostering community innovation alongside regional cooperation.
The Centers of Excellence are designed to empower these communities with the knowledge, tools, and expertise needed to protect their marine environments while developing sustainable blue economies.
This represents a significant milestone in South-South cooperation, combining regional expertise with international scientific support to address some of the most pressing oceanic challenges facing island nations in the Atlantic and beyond.
Summer@LSTS 2020
SUMMER@LSTS 2020 – Introduction to Marine Robotics with applications to ocean observation, underwater archeology and ecosystems mapping – The goal of the course is to provide a comprehensive overview of Marine Robotics with special focus on applications in ocean observation, underwater archeology and ecosystems mapping. There will be an equal emphasis on concepts and on practical applications. There will be 40 hours of lectures and 80 hours of a supervised research project. The course is simultaneously broad, providing a comprehensive overview of Marine Robotics, as well as deep, facilitating access to the open-source LSTS software tool chain and to the LSTS vehicles. The students are encouraged to make an impact in the area!
Summer@LSTS 2020 – Session #5 with Trygve Olav Fossum (NTNU)
Summer@LSTS 2020 continued on August 21st, 2020, 2:30-3:30 PM UTC, with Trygve Olav Fossum, who will discuss his “Experiences using AUVs to do adaptive sampling and autonomy in the Arctic. The climate is changing fast, especially in the Arctic Ocean where sea-ice extent continues to decease. Understanding the effects of the changing climate on the fragile Arctic ecosystem is of utmost importance, as changes in sea-ice cover will have direct consequences on the ecosystem. Over a number of cruises and projects AUVs have been deployed to gather relevant and important scientific information in this regard. The talk will focus on practical aspects of doing AUV operations in the Arctic, as well as the approaches explored for doing autonomous mission planning and execution in this harsh environment.
Summer@LSTS 2020 – Session #4 with Filipe Castro (Texas A&M University)
On August 20th, 2020, 2:15-4:30 PM UTC (short interval by 3:30), Summer@LSTS 2020 had Filipe Castro, who gave a lecture on Archaeology and Engineering. Archaeologists study and try to reconstruct past human activity based on the material remains left behind. To interpret and reconstruct habitats, ships, or even small artifacts, archaeologists look at similar behaviors or artifacts or settling patterns of live cultures around the globe, in order to try to understand the contexts they are studying. Because of that, in many countries around the world archaeology is a sub-discipline of anthropology, not history, as it is in Europe. In any event, archaeologists are anthropologists, because they study the human adventure, which is the very definition of anthropology. But excavating is a very destructive activity. This session is about some of the applications of engineering that are extremely useful to archaeologists.