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Access

Name of the installation: Centro de Ciências do Mar (CCMAR)

Research Infrastructure affiliation(s): EMBRC.PT

Location: Faro (Portugal)

Website address: ccmar.ualg.pt/

Liaison Officer: Dr. Ana Margarida Amaral

Email Contact: amamaral@ualg.pt; ccmarassemble@ualg.pt

 

 

ASSEMBLE Plus Call

CCMAR WELCOME Access Guide

 

Description of the installation

The Centre of Marine Sciences (CCMAR, Faro, Portugal) is a non-profit research organization with the mission to promote research and education on processes in the marine environment, with emphasis on biological interactions and the sustainable use of resources. Research on bioresources includes, among others, aquaculture (nutrition, reproduction, growth and development, epigenetics, new species and models), fisheries and conservation (fishing gear, habitat mapping and restoration, marine protected areas, monitoring, genetics and evolution, chemical ecology), biotechnology (bioactive compounds, biofuels, recombinant protein,  marine based compounds and drugs, environmental technologies), oceanography and climate change (reconstruction of paleo-environments, ocean acidification, abiotic stress-driven evolution, speciation).

 

Facilities

CCMAR laboratory facilities are located at the Gambelas Campus of the University of Algarve. Specialized research service platforms are available for discovery of bioactive compounds, imaging and “omics”. Aquaria for marine organism maintenance and experimentation are offered at the marine station, 5 km from Campus. Research boats equipped with basic oceanographic equipment, supported by diving allows access to biological resources in the southern Portuguese estuaries and Atlantic coast, some areas classified or with protected status.

 

Services

CCMAR offer scientific services to external users coordinated by a Liaison Officer, with support from scientific, technical and administrative staff: 1) Access to ecosystems: intertidal and subtidal, estuaries, coastal lagoon and oceanic, by foot and boats, with diving support; 2) Biological resources: a range of aquaculture fish species can be provided, such as sole (Sole senegalensis), seabream (Sparus aurata), seabass (Dicentrachus labrax), and other model species such as cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), seahorses (Hippocampus guttulatus); 3) Aquaria and tanks at Ramalhete Marine Station: ranging from 50 L to 9 m3 flow-through seawater, and mesocosm of 100L tanks (24) to simulate oceanic acidification scenarios; 4) Labs and research services platforms: electrophysiology (extracellular and patch-clamp), fish and mammalian cell culture (animal cell-based assays, protein assays, quality control of raw materials and products and assay development for bioactive compound discovery), analytical chemistry services (LC-MS and GC-MS, Segmented Flow Analyzers, atomic emission spectrometry); genomics and proteomics services (sequencing, qPCR, Typhoon Trio); protein structural and functional characterization (cloning, expression, and purification of recombinant proteins,   structural elucidation  and  functional characterization, in vitro cell assays); cell imaging (e.g., confocal microscope, Delta Vision, fluorescence stereomicroscope); bioinformatics (gyra.ualg.pt).

 

Support offered under this proposal

Visitors will be provided with office and laboratory space and have full independence and will receive, as required, logistical (reception, integration into infrastructure through Liaison Officer), technical (labs and platforms dedicated technical staff), or scientific (if in-house expertise is required) support. Accommodation can be directly supported and booked by CCMAR in local hotels/University residences. To access more distant coastal ecosystems /facilities visitors may need to rent a car by. Visitor´s will have access to general services, including Internet access, documentation and communication support. There is a weekly seminar programme and visitors will be invited to give a 20 min seminar about their research and purpose of the visit.

Basic consumables, travel expenses until 400€ person.project (in Europe) or 600€ person.project (outside Europe), subsistence support of 70€ person.day until a maximum of 2 persons during 30 days are offered through the Assemble Plus call described conditions.

 

Modality of access

A user group will have access to the services offered under this TA: access to ecosystems and biological resources, access to diving, access to labs and platforms; access to aquaria and tanks described above. Typically, a group of 2 users for 2-4 weeks depending on the type of work are welcome. User groups will receive training on arrival and guidance as needed. Expected output/deliverables for users: users are expected to provide a seminar and a report of the visit. Eventually scientific papers, patents and/or other outputs may be produced. Access costs will be declared on the basis of combined unit cost and actual costs or actual cost only.

 

ASSEMBLE Plus Call

CCMAR WELCOME Access Guide