It is a logistical platform to support research, but also a floating classroom, which will allow University of Algarve students to “get their hands dirty” in a way that was not possible until now. The MarUAlg vessel was launched into the sea yesterday, Monday, and is from now on at the service of research and education carried out at UAlg.
The MarUAlg was inaugurated yesterday and made its first departure from Centro Náutico 818 in Vila Real de Santo António, a few meters from Nautiber, the shipbuilding company where it was conceived.
The construction of this vessel, budgeted at around 120 euros, was financed 100% by the Recovery and Resilience Plan, «in the Impulso Jovem aspect, a program that aims at academic success and improving the teaching and learning processes», according to Paulo Águas, rector of UAlg.
«The University of Algarve has an application to the PRR that is its own, but we are also part of an application that is led by the University of Madeira, which is more focused on issues of marine biodiversity and related themes. And it is within the scope of this candidacy led by the University of Madeira, which includes the University of Algarve, the New University of Lisbon and the University of Évora – the latter three form the university association Campus Sul - that this initiative arises, to equip ourselves with more equipment", he added.
«What motivated this application was the fact that we are a university with a lot of teaching and a lot of research in the area of the sea, but where access to the sea is something that is not very easy, in the activities that we carry out», he explained, for his part. , Alexandra Teodósio, vice-rector of the Algarve University.
«I was a student at the University of Algarve many years ago and the sampling we did, the way we handled the equipment, it was all very demonstrative. It was often only possible to collect samples from a pier”, he recalled.
For Alexandra Teodósio, the fact that UAlg now has «a boat that can take an entire class» and that supports activities «that can serve disciplines such as physical oceanography, chemical oceanography, biological oceanography, marine ecology and several other disciplines that we have in the area of biodiversity» has «enormous potential».
It is also a way of “changing our way of teaching a little, so that it is more practical and carried out in the field – which, in this case, is the sea.
«This vessel was prepared to carry out research work and has the dimensions to be able to work in the secondary channels of the Ria Formosa, which is one of the areas where they intend to sail. It can transport 20 students or researchers and is a very practical vessel, with little maintenance, very simple, designed according to what the university intended», summarized Rui Roque, managing partner of Nautiber.
«It has two 115 hp engines to guarantee a minimum speed in terms of displacement to the places where it needs to go. She has the power to go out to sea, to work in the open sea », said the naval engineer, for whom « the great virtue that this vessel has is that it was built in accordance with the purpose of the UAlg ».
«This boat is a teaching equipment that, at the same time, will also be a research equipment, because you can't do teaching without research. With this boat that was built here – and we are very happy that it was built here in the region -, we are improving the equipment we have for teaching and research», said Paulo Águas.
Rui Roque also highlighted the importance of this vessel being 100% “Algarve”.
«This project was different because it is for the University of Algarve, it is for an entity that is close to us here. It is always healthy to strengthen this link between the industry and the university. It also has great significance as it is a very specific piece of equipment that will work in the Algarve, right next to us», summarized the head of Nautiber.
Photos: Hugo Rodrigues | Sul Informação
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