Visit from the University in Tromsø - The Arctic University of Norway

This week I have had visitors from the University of Tromsø (UiT) or UiT The Arctic University of Norway as it is called now, at the ITQB. After the visit to the ITQB I followed the delegation on a small tour of Portugal which aimed to find new partners for Horizon 2020 applications. The tour went from Lisbon to Cantanhede, were we had a meeting with researchers from Biocant, on the following day we met scientists at the department of Biology at the University of Aveiro (http://uaonline.ua.pt/pub/detail.asp?c=35770) and on the third day we visited the University of Porto. After the meetings in Aveiro our host Joaquim Macedo de Sousa took us the cod fish museum in Ilhavo (were we gave the guide a hard time discussing the weight of the biggest cod ever caught by a Portuguese :-), the lovely beaches outside Aveiro and showed us some of the typical houses in Costa Nova just outside Aveiro. And in Porto, our hosts Vitor Vasconselos at CIIMAR and Vice rector Jorge Gonçalves showed us the spectacular future building for the CIIMAR (which will be co-located with the future cruise ship terminal for Porto) in Matosinhos outside Porto. We were very well received in all the places we visited, and common research interest in various fields of marine research were identified, so I'm positive that partnerships will be made for some future Horizon 2020 applications.

Me on the Costa Nova beach outside Aveiro

The typical houses outside Aveiro

Vitor Vasconselos, Matti Blencke, Trond Jørgensen and Luisa Bastos are listening carefully to the chief engineer on the building site of the new CIIMAR building outside Porto 

The view from the outdoor auditorium on the roof of the building

The building as it is today

A poster showing how the building will look like when it is finished