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  • Funding programme and call:
    Convocatoria de ayudas para el fomento de la cultura científica y de la innovación 2013
  • Start date:
    30/09/2013
  • End date:
    08/08/2014
  • Duration:
    10 Months
  • Total budget:
    52.308,00 €
  • Budget for PLOCAN:
    22.000,00 €
  • Total funding:
    52.308,00 €
  • Funding for PLOCAN:
    22.000,00 €
  • Coordinator:
    PLOCAN (ES)
  • Partners:
    PLOCAN (ES)

Fomento de vocaciones profesionales en tecnologías marinas

This Action tries to boost professional careers in science and technology, helping to increase and promote innovation and creativity in secondary school, professional training and high school students in the field of marine technologies.

Regarding the acquired knowledge from previous workshops on building underwater robot prototypes at the University of Girona (UdG) and the Canary Islands (PLOCAN), it is necessary to boost and broaden the experience among non-university centers throughout the country. The idea is to train teachers on the workshop to supervise students, in the development of creative and innovative ROVs prototypes out of daily low cost materials supplied by the Action. There will also be a virtual collaboration and support among PLOCAN, the UdG and teachers of the schools, to finally hold some meetings where the ROVs will be exhibited and their operation explained. Taking advantage of such events and to reach a wider audience, an exhibition on marine technology will take place..

The underwater robots operated by remote control (Remote Operated Vehicles, ROVs) represent a highly innovative and current demand for diverse operations in the marine environment (eg. search and rescue, renewable energy, deep sampling technology). The market already offers various ROVtypes according to its application, although they are a minority and their development represents the flowering of a growing industry. There is currently a demand for professionals in the field of underwater robotics, so the creation of new careers and promoting vocations to access them among non-college students is necessary. The proposal is an initiative of the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform (PLOCAN) with support from the University of Girona..

  • Funding programme and call:
    ICT call 9 / FP7-ICT-2011-9 / ICT-2011.2.1: Cognitive Systems and Robotics
  • Start date:
    01/01/2013
  • End date:
    31/12/2015
  • Duration:
    36 Months
  • Total budget:
    1.745.819,00 €
  • Budget for PLOCAN:
    124.560,00 €
  • Total funding:
    1.649.996,00 €
  • Funding for PLOCAN:
    111.066,00 €
  • Coordinator:
    Universtity of the West of England - Bristol (UK)
  • Partners:
    UWE (UK) - Fraunhofer (DE) - OULU (FI) - HWU (UK) - PLOCAN (ES) - NATO STO (BE) - CMRE (IT) - FADA-CATEC (ES)
  • Project website:

    http://www.eurathlon.eu/

Support Action for a Targeted Intelligent Autonomous Robotic Contest: The European RoboAthlon

EURATHLON is a new outdoor robotics competition, which will invite teams to test the intelligence and autonomy of their robots in realistic mock emergency-response scenarios. Inspired by the 2011 Fukushima accident the EURATHLON competition will require a team of land, underwater and flying robots to work together to survey the scene, collect environmental data, and identify critical hazards. Leading up to this ‘grand challenge’ in 2015, will be directly related land and underwater robot competitions in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

The EURATHLON competitions will be supported by annual workshops for competitors. In parallel there will be an open process of developing benchmarks to allow comparison of different robots in the EURATHLON competitions. Linked public engagement activities will connect EURATHLON with robotics research, industry and emergency services, as well as the general public. Attendance of spectators will be welcomed, and we hope that EURATHLON events will attract considerable press and media attention. By targeting a specific and urgent need - intelligent robots for disaster-response - EURATHLON will provide European robotics with a platform for challenging, extending and showcasing European cognitive robotics technologies.


El Océano - La Química de la Vida

Within the framework of the International Year of Chemistry, the initiative "The Ocean, Chemistry of Life" tries to expose, in an educational and entertaining way, using a wide range of educational, audiovisual and technological resources, the role that chemical sciences have played in the existing knowledge of the ocean and marine life. Likewise it aims to emphasize its vital importance, both today and in the future, for the work of monitoring the health of our seas, our atmosphere and life on our planet.

With this vision, the exhibition aimed at secondary school, high school and university students, as well as the general public, is complete regarding concepts, and serves both the Canary Islands and the rest of Spain, allowing visitors to go in a simple manner, from fundamental theoretical basic concepts to understanding the chemical processes that occur in the ocean, its relation to the origin of life and the environmental balance of the planet. Visitors will be able to see, touch and understand through guided explanations, oceanographic instruments and equipment, both the common and the cutting edge, including three types of oceanographic buoys and the three types of gliders that are commercially available nowadays, among others.

The exhibition "The Ocean, Chemistry of Life" is an initiative of the Canary Islands Oceanic Platform (PLOCAN), in collaboration with the University of Las Palmas (ULPGC) and the Canary Institute of Marine Sciences (ICCM).


  • Funding programme and call:
    COST. European Cooperation in Science and Technology
  • Start date:
    15/07/2010
  • End date:
    14/07/2014
  • Duration:
    48 Months
  • Total budget:
    12.307,88 €
  • Budget for PLOCAN:
    12.307,88 €
  • Total funding:
    12.307,88 €
  • Funding for PLOCAN:
    12.307,88 €
  • Coordinator:
    ENSTA ParisTech - École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (FR)
  • Partners:
    Países : BE - CY - DE - ES - FI - FR - GR - IE - IL - IS - IT - NO - PL - PT - SE - UK
  • Project website:

    http://www.ego-cost.eu/

  • Click here for more information

European Gliding Observatories Network

The main objective of this Action is the coordination of ongoing research using gliders, and the conception of future research, to operate fleets of autonomous underwater gliders in order to provide cost-effective methods for the discovery and monitoring of the ocean at global, regional and coastal scales with benefit to both basic oceanographic research and operational applications for marine activities.

Underwater gliders are intelligent and affordable platforms useful for long term multi parameter marine observations. They play an important role for present and planned marine observation networks. Deployed in swarms, they provide near realtime high spatial and temporal resolution data that will efficiently fill the gaps left by existing in-situ observation networks based on other marine platforms such as the profilers in the ARGO network. This will be beneficial for both academic oceanographic research and especially operational oceanography systems on which a large number of marine activities now rely. However, the deployment of swarms of gliders requires highly skilled operators and a sophisticated level of cooperation.

The objective of the European Gliding Observatories Action is to build cooperation at the technological, scientific and organizational levels for a European capacity for sustained observations of the oceans with gliders..