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The University of Southampton
Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute

Exploring potential future ocean-facing education collaborations with the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute

Published: 1 November 2022
friends from the CMMI
CMMI's Zacharias Siokouros, Mr Andreas Vyras, met Professor Jane Falkingham

The autumn sunshine in late September brought another visit to Southampton by our friends from the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute. CMMI is a major new research organisation based in Larnaka in the eastern Mediterranean supported by the MaRITeC-X EU Horizon 2020 Teaming grant, of which SMMI is an advanced partner.

CMMI Chief Executive Zacharias Siokouros was accompanied by the Mayor of Larnaka and Chief Executive of the Larnaka Municipality Mr Andreas Vyras, an alumnus of the University of Southampton. For Mayor Vyras, this was his first return to Southampton since he completed his MBA in 2002.  The principal purpose of their visit was to explore extending our ongoing research collaborations into marine and maritime focussed masters-level education to establish a Graduate School of the CMMI. 

The Republic of Cyprus is a non-aligned liberal democracy, member of the European Union and Commonwealth, but located in the eastern limits of the Mediterranean Sea with its eastern-most tip only 100km or so from the coast of Syria.  The island has been a cross-road between central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe for millennia.  Larnaka is the Republic’s second city but to date does not host a university and the visit explored initial concepts of international, graduate courses taught in English in maritime engineering, decarbonisation, marine science and other distinctive Southampton ocean-facing subject strengths.   

During their visit, Mayor Vyras and CMMI CE Siokouros also visited the city of Southampton Civic Chambers and met Lord Mayor Jacqui Rayment, who was recently installed as the 800th Right Worshipful Mayor of Southampton.  Larnaka and Southampton are both ancient ports and coastal cities with rich maritime histories and deep human and trade connections to the sea.  They discussed the histories of the cities and the particular challenges of port cities and coastal communities, exploring potential linkages and collaborations between the cities. 

Southampton Lord Mayor Jacqui Rayment and Mayor of Larnaka Andreas Vyras met at the Southampton City Civic Chambers with local business development staff to discuss building relationships
Mayor Jacqui Rayment & Mayor of Larnaka met with local business staff
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