The main objective of this union between Puerto Sotogrande and the universities that was completed last Tuesday with the signature of the managing director Miguel Ángel Diez, is to develop a preliminary analysis from the perspective of sustainable development and of the blue and circular economy, focusing on scientific research, training, the dissemination of knowledge, and business innovation as engines for addressing environmental and socio-economic problems.

The Sotogrande Sports Port is firmly committed to building stable and permanent partnerships with universities and knowledge production centres to consolidate the commitment to research and innovation in strategic sectors for a more just, equal and sustainable future, where the environment, sustainability itself and the blue economy are protagonists and axes of scientific dissemination and development.

No doubt. for Puerto Sotogrande the signing of this agreement with the public universities of Malaga, Granada and Almería, is a strategic alliance with universities and knowledge transfer centres, as well as a direct positive contribution to the national development of the sustainable blue economy and with all that economic activity of the maritime sector and the use of the sea and its resources for sustainable and cost-effective economic development.

In addition, this agreement reached by the various academic institutions Cin Puerto Sotogrande also makes it possible to investigate with guarantees in certain important lines for researchers and scientists related to the sea and marine life, such as the one that addresses the signing of this agreement for the implementation of a project on the use of new technologies for the monitoring of the biological invasion of Rugulopteryx okamurae in the Strait of Gibraltar, as well as what it means at the level of new opportunities for advanced training and sustainability. All this marked in the ECO2-SOTOGRANDE project.

The project will be developed by all the parties involved and consists of different sampling from vessels on the Andalusian coast, in which ROV's will be used to study the presence of these invasive algae on the Costa del Sol and in coastal areas close to both sides of the Strait, as well as the conduct of training workshops on the use of these ROV's in marine sciences for young researchers. It is important to highlight the use of the technology as a ROV's is a remote underwater operation vehicle with submersible robotic systems that operators use to observe the depths of large water masses from the coast or that through divers are immersed in the water.

The Managing Director of Puerto Sotogrande, Miguel Ángel Diez has signed the agreement for the ECO2-SOTOGRANDE project where the University of Malaga, the University of Granada and the University of Almería participate.

Training workshops will also be held on the use of new technologies in marine science for secondary education students, as well as other environmental education tasks. For all this, Puerto Sotogrande will provide for the implementation of the project all the necessary nautical and maritime means, also the spaces for the development of the work of the project and for the dissemination of the results, and the technical and logistical support for the performance of field work and training tasks.

The University of Málaga provides for this first project of collaboration to a team of researchers and teachers who were precisely in Puerto Sotogrande setting up this collaboration agreement, as well as the scientific and technical equipment necessary to carry out the planned tasks, the press team of the UMA and the Campus of International Excellence of the CIS Sea · MAR to facilitate the tasks of dissemination of activities and results, etc.

Enrique Moreno Ostos, a professor of the Department of Ecology and Geology (UMA) and a major researcher, was accompanied by other teachers such as Félix López Figueroa, Simone Sammartino of the Department of Applied Physics II (UMA), Francisco Franco Duro of the Department of Organic Chemistry, Cristalography and Minerology (UMA), and Juan Luis Aguilas (UMA).

The Gema Morales Urgel High School Professor of the EES Arroyo de la Miel de Benalmádena, as well as the UTE composed of 35 North 3 West S.L. and The KsFactory / Redverde, represented by Gojko Kremenic Rodríguez, Marteen Meinesz, and Rafael Cintora Escalante, are also part of this work team. The direction of Puerto Sotogrande as well as the Area of Environment and the Captains of its own Port, have been integrated within the working group as active partners of the same in terms of the operation and support of this marina to the needs of the project, constituting in it the operational basis for the development of the activities and the workshops to be carried out.