SMMI is leading partner in EU H2020 project to establish the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute
An EU Horizon 2020 project to establish the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute has been announced, with Southampton as the leading international partner. This project developed through an earlier Horizon 2020 Teaming grant that brought Cypriot stakeholders to Southampton last year for a planning workshop. The CMMI concept draws strongly on Southampton’s successful approach within SMMI. CMMI will catalyse Cyprus’ Blue Economy and become a beacon for marine research in the Eastern Mediterranean. Initial support is provided by this €15M grant and is matched by equal funding from the Cypriot government and further support from Larnaka Municipality.
SMMI already has strong links to Cyprus, involving researchers in engineering, humanities and ocean and Earth science. Our partnership with the CMMI will bring SMMI into closer partnership with the Cypriot government, academia and maritime industries.
A total of £1.1M of the project funding is allocated to SMMI, to provide leadership and guidance to the CMMI team and create a cohort of SMMI-CMMI Research Fellows to initiate and develop CMMI activities. SMMI will also support enterprise training, via the Southampton-hosted SetSquared organisation. The SMMI project leaders are Profs David White and Simon Quinn, with contributors spanning the breadth of SMMI.
Recently, SMMI Director Professor Damon Teagle took time out from geological fieldwork in the Troodos mountains Cyprus to meet the founders of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute (CMMI) in Larnaka and celebrate the success of the H2020 Bid. Damon met with Mr. Andreas Vyras (Mayor of Larnaca), Mr. Andreas Karakatsanis (Chief Engineer, Director of Technical Services of the Municipality of Larnaca and coordinator of MaRITeC-X proposal), Prof. Elias Yfantis member of the scientific team coordinating MaRITeC-X proposal and MarInEM associate), Angelos Ktoris (Researcher – Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranen) and Zacharias Siokouros (Lloyd’s Register, Cyprus).
Figure one: (l to r) Angelos Ktoris (Researcher – Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean), Prof. Elias Yfantis (MaRITeC-X scientific team and MarInEM associate), Mr. Andreas Karakatsanis (Chief Engineer, Director of Technical Services of the Municipality of Larnaca and coordinator of MaRITeC-X proposal), SMMI Director Damon Teagle, and Mr Zacharias Siokouros (Lloyd’s Register, Cyprus).