The name of the project is MarinEye (A prototype for multitrophic oceanic monitoring) and will provide information on changes in biodiversity. How? By monitoring the different components of the oceans in an integrated way. This will provide reliable information that will make it possible not only to detect changes in biodiversity but also to understand the impact for the client, and to detect environmental anomalies. Ultimately, the prototype developed by a group of Portuguese researchers will promote a sustainable ocean management.

The project will be concluded in April of next year, and will be based on four modules that will be included in the MarinEye prototype. The system also features a platform that will integrate the different types of data that will be generated, and software that makes it possible to visualise and summarise data, as well as involve a number of models that will integrate and identify the inter-relations between the different chemical, physical and biological parameters obtained using the different modules of the MarinEye.

The project is being developed by different Portuguese research groups from the  Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), project leader, the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC),  the Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute (IPMA) and the  Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE – IP Leiria) (MARE – IP Leiria), which will play different roles. CIIMAR is the project promoter and, together with the IPMA and MARE-IP Leiria, they bring in a team of biologists and chemists of different specialties who will be validating the variables obtained with the different modules of the MarinEye. INESC TEC brings to the project a team of robotics researchers, as well as optical fibre specialists and a team that specialises in data analytics, who will be in charge of developing the robotics, sensing and software components to visualise and integrate data, respectively.

Project MarinEye is funded by the EEA Grants programme, in about 400 thousand euros.

Jornal da Economia do Mar, 24 February 2016