Overview
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HMCR) is a governmental research Centre operating under the auspices of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (Greek Ministry of Education). It has the mandate to promote basic research in all fields of the aquatic environment and to deliver comprehensive scientific and technical support to the public. It is composed of three institutes: Oceanography, Marine Biological Resources & Inland Waters, Marine Biology, Genetics & Aquaculture. HCMR operates the 62m R/V Aegaeo, the 23m R/V Filia, four ROVs, the manned submersible THETIS, as well as two aquariums in Crete and Rhode Islands.
Within the last 20 years HCMR has contributed to a large number of international research projects for the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. It also participates in large international initiatives such as GLOBEC, CLIVAR and GOOS and supports the efforts of IOC. In the field of operational oceanography HCMR is an active member of EuroGOOS & MΟΝGOOS and contributes by (a) developing a national monitoring/forecasting capacity through the POSEIDON programme, and (b) participating in various EC and ESA funded research projects (MFSPP, MFSTEP, MERSEA_IP, MARCOAST, ECOOP, MyOceanI&II, MyOcean FO, JERICO, FixO3, JERICO NEXT) for the development of the European capacity in Operational Oceanography. Since 2010, HCMR hosts the In-Situ Thematic Assembly Centre (INSTAC) by collecting data from the observing platforms in the Mediterranean Sea acting also as the Regional Data Centre for the Mediterranean GOOS (MONGOOS).
