FIO to Host the 21st POGO Annual Meeting
| Hosted by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Pescas (INDP), the 20th POGO Annual Meeting (POGO-20) was held in Mindelo, Cabo Verde during January 22 to 24, 2019. The event attracted more than 90 officials and representatives. They come from international organizations such as the IOC and GOOS, and other marine research institutes from 14 countries, like Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the USA, National Oceanography Centre in the UK, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology. Li Tiegang, Direct of First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), and Zheng Wei, Deputy Head of Division of International Cooperation, attended at the event and introduced FIO's work progress in ocean and polar observations.
At the meeting, members discussed POGO's achievements and progress made in 2018, and POGO's priorities in ocean observation cooperation for the coming year. In addition, according to the decision adopted at the meeting, Director Li Tiegang was elected as the POGO’s board member, and FIO will host the 21st POGO Annual Meeting in Qingdao in 2020. This decision will help FIO better integrate in the POGO and strength FIO's partnerships with other members, thereby promoting FIO to better participate in related international programs.
The establishment of POGO can trace back to March 1999, when the Directors of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the UK, convened a planning meeting in the headquarters of the IOC. POGO provides a forum for senior officials and principals of major marine research institutes worldwide to discuss issues of mutual concern. It is committee to propelling global oceanographic research, in particular, to promoting the implementation of global integrated ocean observing system. POGO now has 38 members. The current Chairman is Prof. Nick Owens, Director of the Scottish Association for Marine Science. The Secretariat is established at Plymouth Marine Laboratory. FIO joined the POGO in 2007.
 Group Photo of Participants
 Meeting Site |