The Cidade da Cultura brings together 200 experts in a meeting of the marine sector with scientists from the Galician marine science programme
- The conference, inaugurated by the Head of the Regional Department for Marine Issues, Mr. Alfonso Villares, brought together researchers and representatives of the regional administration, productive sectors and organisations from the marine field
- The meeting served to evaluate the progress in observation and monitoring of the marine environment, sustainable aquaculture and social and economic transformation, as well as to debate the challenges of marine science and research in Galicia
The Galician Marine Science Programme held today the fifth assembly titled “Advances facing the identified challenges and meeting with the marine sectors”, brought together 200 experts at the Cidade da Cultura in Santiago de Compostela. It offered a space for dialogue and collaboration around the needs and challenges of Galicia’s marine sector aimed at being tackled by research.
The meeting was inaugurated by the Head of the Regional Department for Marine Issues, Mr. Alfonso Villares, accompanied by Francisco Saborido, scientific coordinator of the Programme and researcher at the Marine Research Institute-CSIC. Mr. Villares highlighted and thanked the work of the scientific community who enable the advances of the Galician Marine Science Programme. He referred to the programme as ‘an integrated model to manage the flow of scientific knowledge’ and ‘completely adapted to the environmental, socio-cultural, economic and institutional context of Galicia’.
He added: “From the Regional Department for Marine Issues we are proud of this Programme, key for the understanding of coastal and marine ecosystems and the improved management of their relationship with human activities”. A Programme that he defined as “pioneering and successful, result of the tenacity and perseverance of great professionals”.
Further details of the meeting
All the institutions that take part in the programme participated in the meeting, organised by IIM-CSIC, CETMAR and CIM (University of Vigo). Some of the institutions included are the Galician universities, the Galician Supercomputing Centre (Cesga) as well as the Galician Technological Institute for the Control of the Marine Environment (Intecmar), the Centre for Marine Research (CIMA) and the Galician Institute for Aquaculture Training (Igafa), dependent on the Regional Department for Marine Issues.
The event dealt with three topic blocks reflecting the importance of innovations in key areas, such as marine observation and monitoring, sustainable use of resources and resilience of coastal ecosystems. There were presented new observation platforms and technologies for a better knowledge of the state of the marine environment, its alterations and their impact, as well as advances for an increased knowledge on the state of resources and technologies to improve aquaculture, shellfish and fisheries production.
A virtual marine laboratory and extreme event simulators were some of the innovative initiatives presented. Additionally, there were shown some outstanding advances in the digitization of value chains in the fisheries sector, in the application of genomic tools for the improvement of aquaculture and shellfish farming production, and advances in the management and sustainable supply of mollusc’s seed.
