FIO Signs MOU with Technical University of Crete

Recently, LI Tiegang, Director General of the First Institute of Oceanography (FIO), Ministry of Natural Resources of China led a delegation to visit the Technical University of Crete (TUC) in Greece and renewed the Memorandum of Understanding.

Established in 1977, TUC in Greece stands as a public university under the supervision of the Ministry of Education of Greece. Its Laboratory of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering has conducted research on the absolute ground calibration of satellite radar altimeters since 2004. It established altimeter calibration sites in Crete and Gavdos, which are among the main altimeter calibration sites across the globe. The laboratory has successively calibrated radar altimeters including Jason-2, ENVISAT, and Cryosat, ranking top in the world in terms of calibration technology.

FIO has conducted cooperation and exchanges with TUC since 2013 and the two sides signed a MOU in 2014, achieving fruitful results in fields such as satellite altimeter calibration, sea level change and sea-gas interaction and jointly publishing multiple academic papers in international journals.

During the visit, Director General LI Tiegang and Prof. Michail Zervakis, Rector of TUC attended the MOU signing ceremony and delivered remarks. After the ceremony, Director General LI Tiegang, along with his delegation had a meeting with the Rector, the Vice-rector and the Director of the Laboratory of Geodesy and Geomatics Engineering at which the two sides had in-depth discussions on issues such as extending cooperation fields and building new cooperation mechanisms.

The visit is of vital importance to the implementation of bilateral practical cooperation in marine science and technology and joint response to marine disasters including climate change and sea level rise.