On February 21, INESC TEC and the Portuguese Navy signed a technical and financial collaboration protocol with the Environmental Fund. This agreement ensures the funding of 100.000 euros for the SAIL project (Space-Atmosphere-Ocean Interactions, in the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer) over a three-year period.
The ship NRP Sagres has already crossed the Atlantic, with a group of INESC TEC researchers on board “to develop a unique, interdisciplinary data set for climate and space-land interaction studies at a regional and global level”, according to the protocol signed on February 21, at the Ministry for the Environment and Climate Action, in Lisbon.
Two months after the departure of the School Ship Sagres, from Lisbon, the Minister of National Defence, João Gomes Cravinho, and the Secretary of State for the Environment, Inês dos Santos Costa, participated in the signing of the protocols, which guarantee the funding – through the Environmental Fund – of the research work developed during the ship’s circumnavigation trip.
Alexandra Ferreira de Carvalho, Director of the Environmental Fund and Secretary-General of the Ministry for the Environment, as well as Captain Jorge Garrincha, Director of CINAV, signed the documents.
Representing INESC TEC, Rui Oliveira was responsible for signing the protocol, while Susana Barbosa, scientific coordinator of the SAIL project, presented the project and its objectives.
Rui Oliveira, member of INESC TEC Board of Directors, believes that said agreement “acknowledges the significant relevance of scientific research carried out under the SAIL project, namely in climate action, and the sustained consolidation of INESC TEC’s close collaboration with the Portuguese Navy in different areas of intervention”.
The Environmental Fund aims to support environmental policies to meet sustainable development objectives, thus contributing to the fulfilment of national and international goals and commitments.
The main objective of the SAIL project is to study atmospheric electricity and climate change, by collecting and measuring data on the atmosphere and the ocean, over a 371-day period.
Mile by mile, it’s possible to follow the work of the INESC TEC team on board of the School Ship Sagres, thanks to the travel log – shared on INESC TEC social network pages.
Eduardo Silva, researcher at the Centre for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (CRAS), is responsible for the technical coordination of the SAIL project, while Susana Barbosa, researcher at the Centre for Information System and Computer Graphics (CSIG) is in charge of the scientific coordination. The following researchers are and/or were on board the School Ship Sagres, carrying out measurements: Carlos Almeida, Guilherme Amaral, Nuno Dias, Luís Lima and António Ferreira.
INESC TEC is the leader of this three-year project, having as partners the Navy/MDN (CINAV), the AIR Center (Atlantic International Research Centre), CIIMAR (Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research) and the University of Minho. Consultants associated with the University of Reading, the Federal University of Paraná and INESC P&D Brazil also collaborate with the project.
The researchers mentioned in this news piece are associated with INESC TEC, UMinho and ISEP.
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