Major effort on coastal research
"The combination of the young University of Agder and the more traditional University of Oslo and Institute of Marine Research is very potent," Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth says. He is the chairman of CCR – Centre for Coastal Research, which on Wednesday becomes a priority research centre.
This article is more than two years old, and may contain outdated information.
"We want to be a leading centre within coastal research. The research environment wants to create several large international projects that can provide us with more general knowledge about the ecosystems in coastal and ocean areas," Professor and Head of CCR Halvor Knutsen says.
Strong collaboration partners
"We have great expectations for the centre, and we are certain that this will be a great collaboration. The centre is a major effort by UiA and involves an important collaboration between the University of Oslo, the Institute of Marine Research, GRID Arendal and NIVA," Stenseth says.
In autumn 2018, the University Board at UiA decided that five research centres at UiA would be granted the status as priority research centres. CCR is one of these.
Chairman of CCR Professor Nils Chr. Stenseth has great expectations for the centre.
For the research environment at CCR, the effort means a lot for further development of the centre within both marine research and education in Agder.
"The status as a priority research centre gives us additional professional standing. The aim is to go even further than before and increase the number of publications in top international journals," Knutsen says.
Established environment in Flødevigen
Head of CCR, Professor Halvor Knutsen.
The centre is situated at the Institute of Marine Research in Flødevigen in Arendal – in addition to the University of Oslo, NIVA and the University of Agder. It is mainly here that the actual research is being done, while the research field is the Norwegian coast of the Skagerrak strait. The centre also does research in other coastal and ocean areas around the world.
For several decades, Agder has had a strong ocean research environment. In 2012, UiA established CCR together with its collaboration partners. In the last few years, a lot of work has been done to build a strong network in Southern Norway within coastal research.
"The ambition level of the research environment is quite high for doing research and publications. The centre will continue to deliver exciting research results, in addition to disseminating knowledge to decision makers and the public," Stenseth says.
Official celebration of the centre
The effort will be officially celebrated on Wednesday, 27 March, 11:00 at Restaurant Smag og Behag in Grimstad. There, Halvor Knutsen and Nils Chr. Stenseth will present the priority research centre CCR. Ongoing research projects will also be presented. 17 researchers from the centre will hold mini-lectures.
In the evening, Stenseth will put everything in a larger historic and international context.