The signature of the Protocol formalises an existing collaboration between the ICM-CSIC and the SMC in the development and implementation of observation systems to strengthen Catalan coastal safety.
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) have signed a protocol to foster the promotion, coordination, development and dissemination of scientific and technological research related to atmospheric and oceanic sciences. The Protocol will also serve to promote the training of personnel and the provision of advice to public and private entities in these matters. This Protocol establishes that the CSIC's participation will be channelled through one of its centres of excellence, the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona.
The signature of the Protocol by the director of the SMC, Eliseu Vilaclara, and the vice-president for organisation and institutional relations of the CSIC, Rosina López-Alonso, formalises an already existing collaboration between the ICM-CSIC and the SMC in the development and implementation of observation systems to strengthen Catalan coastal safety.
The Protocol will enhance cooperation between the parties, exchanges of information and technology, and synergies in the acquisition and processing of meteorological, atmospheric and oceanic data. It will also encourage the joint participation of technicians and researchers from both institutions in R&D&I research projects aimed at improving the understanding of ocean-atmosphere interactions and their role in regulating the Earth's climate, as well as collaboration in the training and integration of undergraduate and postgraduate students in research projects coordinated by both institutions.
The signing of the protocol was celebrated in a simple ceremony at the ICM-CSIC facilities, located on the Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, in Barcelona. Josep Lluís Pelegrí, director of the ICM-CSIC, expressed his joy at the formalisation of the agreement:
"The signature will of both institutions to exchange technologies and knowledge will allow us to understand and predict the climate system as well as possible and, at the same time, to propose preventive and mitigating actions for the effects of climate change on society and nature".
For his part, Eliseu Vilaclara, director of the SMC, emphasised "the importance of this Protocol to consolidate the objective of turning the SMC into a research centre and making meteoceanography one of the lines of work, as well as to guarantee maximum coordination between the various actions aimed at meteoceanographic monitoring and prediction implemented in Catalonia".