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AIR Centre is formally founded today

The AIR Centre - Atlantic International Research Centre will be formally established during the second international high-level meeting "Industry-Science-Government Dialogue on Atlantic Interactions - Florianópolis Summit: implementing the Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre)", which takes place on November 20-21 in Brazil. The signing of the "Florianópolis Declaration" will also determine the creation of an installation committee, which will define a financial and implementation plan for this international and intergovernmental platform.

Based in the Azores, the AIR Centre will be a platform for the development of research activities on climate, land, space and ocean. It will create scientific jobs for highly qualified human resources, while enabling integrated research on the Atlantic. The governments of Portugal, Brazil, Spain, Angola, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Uruguay and São Tomé and Príncipe are involved in this project, together with the regional government of the Azores. The United Kingdom and South Africa are involved as Observers at this stage.

The Centre also involves several research and technology organizations such as eurOcean, PLOCAN, Barcelona Super Computing Center, CEiiA, University of Texas (Austin), University of Cape Verde, Ireland's Marine Institute, SINTEF, WavEc, RAEGE Association (Azores), INESC TEC, INESC Brasil, Instituto de Biodiversidade, and Instituto Español de Oceanografía, as well as multinationals such as Elecnor Deimos, Thales, EDP Inovação, Lusospace and Tekever.

The meeting is an initiative of the Portuguese Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, and the Brazilian Minister for Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications, Gilberto Kassab.

The meeting is also attended by the Argentine Minister for Science, Technology and Productive Innovation, Lino Barañao, and the Angolan Minister for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Sambo.