Marine Research & Infrastructure EMBRC-ERIC

The Marine Research Centre (CIM) of the University of Vigo is recognized as one of Galicia’s Centers of Excellent Research (CIGUS), supported by the regional government (Xunta de Galicia). CIM is a leading interdisciplinary hub dedicated to aquatic and marine sciences. Comprising more than 230 researchers, CIM focuses on four core areas:

• aquaculture and sustainable fisheries,

• marine pollution,

• climate change impacts,

• marine renewable energy.

The mission of the UVIGO-CIM is to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans, seas and marine resources through the generation and transfer of knowledge based on science, technology and innovation. This is mainly performed through the signing of R&D&I contracts, the creation of technology-based companies, besides providing consultancy and training services for external entities, bring a reference partner for the marine productive sector. It has an important capacity to attract external R&D&I resources through research projects and actions awarded in competitive regional, national and international calls, as well as through collaborations with companies. In the period 2023-2024, it gathered a total of 9,9 M€ of funds for R&D&I projects, of which more than 2,6 M€ from international competitive calls.

The UVIGO-CIM is distributed among the university campus of Vigo and Ourense. Its cutting-edge infrastructures includes the Toralla Marine Sciences Station (ECIMAT). ECIMAT has unique facilities that are part of the European Research Infrastructure EMBRC-ERIC. It offers state-of-the-art facilities and specialised services for marine science such as:

• marine research laboratories for aquaculture and global change studies,

• off-shore and floating mesocosm facilities,

• technological platforms for marine and oceanography research,

• supply of marine biological resources and culturing of model organisms,

• access to coastal ecosystems,

• processing and analysis of water samples, sediments and marine organisms.

All these services enable to conduct high-quality research resulting in more than 3000 services provided every year, both internally and externally, and in the execution of more than 30 transnational access provided within previous projects. The research services provided by the ECIMAT are complemented also by a new oceanographic hybrid vessel and the experimental raft deployed in the Ria de Aldan equipped with sensors and a weather station that allows to address global challenges such ocean sustainability and energy transition.

CIM is interested in the possible collaboration with other entities working in the area of marine sciences.