The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology highlighted in Lagoa the creation of an Internationalisation Plan for Science and Technology with the aim of "attracting external funding to the Region and, thus, strengthen the economic axis based on research, development and innovation."
 
Gui Menezes stressed that this plan also intends to "improve the success rate of the participation of regional entities in European and international funding programmes. It also promotes the installed capacity in the Region as regards to the skills of researchers who are part of the Scientific and Technological System of the Azores."
 
The Regional Secretary spoke at the opening session of the international symposium on "Lessons from two high CO2 worlds – future oceans and intensive aquaculture." The three-day event brings together more than four dozen scientists from 15 countries in the areas of climate change and aquaculture, who will discuss research priorities and strategies to mitigate the negative impacts of CO2 on marine ecosystems.
 
In his speech, Gui Menezes defended that the Internationalisation Plan for Science and Technology promoted by the Azorean Government will allow "an increasingly effective participation of regional entities in several European funding programmes, namely Horizon 2020, Atlantic Area and INTERREG Europe, among others.
 
The Regional Secretary emphasised the importance of integrating researchers into international consortia through the European ERA-NET funding mechanism, adding that three research projects are currently underway in the field. They involve the participation of regional scientific teams, through the Regional Fund for Science and Technology.
 
"By the end of this year, we expect to support more regional teams from different scientific areas within the ERA-NET financial network, an overall investment of 400 thousand Euros," said the Regional Secretary.
 
The government official also highlighted the "transatlantic tailoring of the Azores and its geographical location" as "factors of attraction" for the implementation of projects related to the study of climate change and oceans.
 
Regarding the acidification of oceans, the Regional Secretary noted that, based on several studies, it is predicted that 75% of cold-water corals will be exposed to waters with lower Ph values by 2100. This implies a decrease in their metabolic and physiological functions, undermining their survival and the species that depend on them.
 
In this regard, he highlighted the research carried out by the University of the Azores and IMAR at the CoralLab, based in Horta. It has focused on the impact of deep-sea acidification process on different functional groups of marine organisms, especially on cold-water coral reefs, which will be exposed to environments with a predicted pH level for the year 2100.
 
"These data are also important for predicting the impacts of climate change on marine ecosystems and, consequently, on measures to mitigate such changes," namely the reduction of emissions from fossil fuels and the use of efficient and renewable energy sources, stressed the Regional Secretary.
 
Gui Menezes also stressed that the Azores are considered a global hotspot in terms of diversity of cold-water corals living on the seabed at a depth between 25 and 3,000 metres.
 
This international symposium taking place at NONAGON - S. Miguel Science and Technology Park until Thursday is organised by the Experimental Society of Biology, the University of Exeter, England, in partnership with the Regional Fund for Science and Technology.