From today until next Friday, around twenty experts in marine studies and authorities from the universities of Cape Verde, Xiamen and the Ocean University of China will participate in the International Week on Marine Studies Multidisciplinary Approaches, organised by the University of Vigo and Campus do Mar and funded by the Eramus+ programme. Over the course of five days, participants in the international week will develop a complete programme of scientific activities with the aim of deepening the relationship that Chinese and African academic institutions have had with the University of Vigo for years, as well as exploring new avenues of collaboration, beyond the marine environment. “This is a successful relationship and it is about giving it continuity, but also exploring new themes of collaboration and convergence, appropriate to the preferred lines of Campus do Mar and the University of Vigo”, explains Daniel Rey, director of Campus do Mar and the Marine Research Centre of the University of Vigo (CIM-UVigo). For her part, Maribel Doval, vice-rector for Social Responsibility, Internationalization and Cooperation, highlights that “the idea is also to work on future joint projects with these universities and organize K-107 mobilities that the University of Vigo has approved with these universities for the coming academic year.”
Until next Friday, participants in the international week will exchange experiences with teachers and research staff from the University of Vigo and Campus do Mar, in addition to visiting laboratories and research centers, not only in the marine field, but also in the technological and economic fields. “We will also make a visit to the Cíes Islands with scientific documentation, in which we will show them the richness of the national park”, explains Daniel Rey in relation to the program of activities designed for the Chinese and African delegations, who will also make a guided tour of the historic center of Vigo and a working session on Galician traditions and culture led by Luis Prego from the Casco Vello Association.
A decade of joint work between Vigo and Cape Verde
If the first contact between the people in charge of Campus do Mar with the Chinese universities of Xiamen and Ocean University dates back to 2012, the relationship between the University of Vigo and its counterpart in Cape Verde began in 2009. “It’s been ten years. It’s a very old relationship and not only long, but also with many products, such as the training project for our teaching staff and also for the National Institute for Fisheries Development; the theses or the integrated master’s program in Oceanography and Marine Resources”, explains Judite da Encarnação Medina do Nascimento, rector of the University of Cape Verde, who heads the delegation of the African academic institution that is visiting Vigo these days. In addition to strengthening the relationship between the research staff, the rector considers this week a good opportunity to strengthen the links between both institutions and “expand further, open ourselves up to other areas such as health or sports, studying the possibilities of collaboration in these areas”.
The Cape Verdean rector highlights among the actions developed over the years under the auspices of Campus do Mar the Empreamar project, Entrepreneurship at sea. Innovation for the sustainable development of coastal communities in Cape Verde, which at the moment, at the beginning of its second phase, will allow the creation of an incubator “where projects to incubate companies with a national impact can be developed. It is the largest transfer project that our university is developing in consortium with a foreign university”, points out Judite da Encarnação Medina do Nascimento, who highlights the added value that the relationship between Vigo and Cape Verde represents for the two academic institutions. Three months ago, the two universities signed a memorandum of collaboration for the implementation of the Entrepreneurship and self-employment project for young people and women in the Blue Economy sector in Cape Verde, co-financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation with the aim of contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of people dependent on the Blue Economy or Economy of the Sea, through the implementation of innovative solutions based on training and the promotion of sustainable and profitable entrepreneurship.
Source: DUVI
