Background

The MaRITeC-X project is a seven-year Horizon 2020 Teaming project (project number 857586). Teaming projects create new or update existing centres of excellence in Widening countries through a coupling process with leading scientific institutions. The centre under development is the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI), a center of Excellence in Marine and Maritime Research, Technology Development and Innovation. 

The project consortium is comprised of the following partners: Municipality of Larnaca, Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, BlueWise Marine (Ireland), Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (UK), Geoimaging, Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry, SignalGeneriX, Marine Institute of Eastern Mediterranean and the Marine Institute (Ireland). The project is currently in Phase 2 where financial support is provided to implement the activities of the centre.

Research Centre Building

A major project milestone was achieved in November 2021, with the signing of the contract for the design of CMMI’s permanent premises at Mackenzie Beach, Larnaca. The contract was signed by CMMI CEO Zacharias Siokouros and the Managing Director of DMA Architects – Engineers LLC, Mr Demetris Michael in the presence of CMMI’s interim COO Andreas Karakatsanis, Chief Engineer of Larnaka Municipality and the Evaluation Committee that selected the successful bidder, see photo outside existing facilities (CMMI House) Figure 1. The new research centre will be located at an exceptional location between the Mediterranean Sea and the adjacent Salt Lake; and next to the city’s International Airport.

Thalassa Conference

CMMI will host its first major conference between the 6th and 8th of June in Larnaca. The Thalassa 2022 Conference represents an effort to establish a regional conference on marine research and the event aims to address the most critical issues the marine and coastal environments face. The topics of the conference include marine conservation, marine protected areas, fisheries and aquaculture, oceanography, and climate change impacts. For researchers within the Marine Institute interested in presenting their work, abstracts may be submitted for considered,  submissions will be open from the 7th of February to 11th March on the following link: https://www.easyacademia.org/thalassa2022. More information about the conference can be found here: https://cyprusconferences.org/thalassa2022/

Visit of Irish Ambassador Conor Long to CMMI House

Irish Ambassador to Cyprus Conor Long visited CMMI existing facilities on Thursday 3rd of February at 9:30 a.m.. During the meeting in Larnaca, attended by local Executive Team members at CMMI House and international Executive Team members on-line,  Ambassador Long outlined his support for the MaRITeC-X project and the commended the work of the CMMI and the Irish partners on the project, the Marine Institute and BlueWise Marine.