Agreement between Ifremer and the Marine Institute
Peter Heffernan, Chief Executive of the Irish Marine Institute, and François Jacq, CEO of Ifremer, have signed an agreement the 8th of September.
"I am delighted and honoured to sign this agreement with our great friends in Ifremer on behalf of the Marine Institute. The key activity areas which our respective teams have prioritised for enhanced scientific collaboration are central to our respective national services" Peter Heffernan said. "The opportunity to benefit from enhanced international collaboration on
key strategic areas such as fisheries, aquaculture and biotechnology as well as seabed and habitat mapping, deep sea observatories and ocean observation is most welcome and timely."
François Jacq replied : "Ifremer feels very honoured to have been offered the responsibility to host this event as such an agreement signed between our two Institutes confirms that European cooperation for Marine research is important and necessary to maintain Europe in the international leadership in this domain. I note with satisfaction that this agreement will allow us to continue to expand the scope of our bilateral cooperation in the identified key strategic areas".
The aim of the agreement is to facilitate long term cooperation between the Marine Institute and Ifremer in the following fields of research, including:
- oceanography and climate change,
- operational ocean forecasting and model development,
- marine biodiversity,
- value and use of marine biological resources and blue biotechnologies,
- sustainable fisheries and aquaculture,
- sustainable use of mineral and renewable ocean energy resources,
- seabed & habitat mapping, marine observation systems and technology,
- environmental forecasting systems for coastal environments,
- marine data analytics/databases, and
- shared access to marine research infrastructures
In order to make the collaboration a success, a structured work plan for the collaboration will be developed. It includes the promotion of appropriate joint meetings with the aim of leading to the development of areas for cooperation for marine scientific and technological research, the development of joint projects and the will to exchange information and materials in areas of mutual interest.
Ifremer and the Marine Institute are already partners for more than 20 projects, half of them being H2020 European projects. Atlantos, for example, aims to reinforce observation systems in Atlantic and EMSO projects develop the creation of observatories in the deep seas.