On 20 and 21 March 2019, a delegation from the Ministry of Science and Education of Croatia and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the University of Rijeka visited the Institute of Oceanology. The visit was a part of the ResInfra@DR project activities (Facilitating macro-regional scope and link to socio-economic actors of the Research Infrastructure in the Danube Region), where partners from the Bulgarian side are the Ministry of Education and Science and the Applied Research and Communications Fund, as a representative of the Fund was also part of the delegation. The purpose of the visit was to share experience in building, managing, developing and using the scientific infrastructure.

During the visit, the delegation was aware of the MASRI scientific infrastructure, and in particular the components of it, operated by the Institute of Oceanology. Several meetings were held with infrastructure managers, scientists and PhD students who use it, as well as scientists, PhD students and experts from outside organizations working with MASRI components. During the meetings the plans for the development of the scientific infrastructure and the main problems of its use were discussed. The members of the delegation visited the main components of MASRI at the Institute of Oceanology: R/V “Akademic”, the PS-8B mini-submarine, the National Oceanographic Data and Information Center and research laboratories where they were familiar with the available infrastructure and plans for the future and development.

As a result of the visit, the delegation will prepare a report with recommendations to optimize the management and use of the MASRI scientific infrastructure and, in particular, its components, operated by the Institute of Oceanology. It was agreed to extend the cooperation between the Institute of Oceanology and the University of Rijeka in the field of scientific infrastructure.