On June 16th and 17th 2020, SeaClear partners participated in a project meeting which was held online due to the situation with the corona virus. SeaClear initiative plans to develop first mixed system of Unmanned Underwater, Surface, and Aerial Vehicles - UUV, USV, UAV - to find and collect litter from the seabed and from the water column. The focus is on coastal areas since that is where waste inflow concentrates. At this meeting, coordinators of each work package provided an overview of the current state of implementation and instructed further tasks in order to comply with the planned schedule of activities. The next meeting is foreseen for September 2020 and should take place in Dubrovnik. Preliminary investigations of the pilot sites in Croatia, namely the island of Lokrum and Bistrina in Mali Ston Bay, has already begun by experts from the University of Dubrovnik. Planned meeting in September will be a great opportunity for other expert partners to also conduct initial demonstrations of currently available systems.

World-leading scientists & health experts say €7.5 billion is needed to develop solutions to test, treat & protect people, and prevent coronavirus from spreading. The European Union and Comission, which are the sponsors of this project, have organised a Global Response pledging effort to finance these life-saving solutions.

Join the EU’s GlobalResponse pledging effort: https://europa.eu/global-response/

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing hosted a two-day regional workshop 'Space powering the Green Deal and the Digital Economy' that was co-organised with the European Space Agency (ESA) and Croatian Ministry of Science and Education. The workshop took place on the 5th and 6th of March 2020 and welcomed more than 200 participants, national and international experts from the public and private sectors. More than 20 lectures on different topics related to space technologies, Earth observation data, and environmental protection were presented.

This workshop was a unique opportunity for Croatian researchers and interested public to exchange information and ideas with European experts, to define further steps in strenghtening cooperation, and to explore opportunities for Croatian industry to become actively involved in ESA's programs and projects.

Assoc.prof. Ivana Palunko from LARIAT-Laboratory for intelligent autonomous systems, University of Dubrovnik presented our H2020 SeaClear Project and took part in the panel discussion.

SeaClear has been featured in BlueOcean Magazine: https://blueoceanmag.com/seaclear-autonomous-robots-that-clean-the-ocean/.