ICEMASA

International Centre for Education, Marine and Atmospheric Sciences over Africa

ICEMASA is a joint venture between several laboratories in Republic of South Africa and France, focusing on Marine Sciences (marine ecosystems, resources management, physical oceanography, ocean-atmosphere exchanges, biogeochemistry) over the Southern Africa coasts and the Southern Ocean through a multidisciplinary approach.

ICEMASA is devoted to three complementary goals:

ICEMASA gathers scientists, lecturers, professors, engineers and technicians from:

(i) Republic of South Africa

Department of Environmental Affairs - DEA (Oceans and Coasts)

Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries - DAFF (Fisheries Branch)

MArine REsearch institute and University of Cape Town - UCT and MARE / Dpt. of Oceanography & Dpt. of Zoology

(ii) Republic of France

Laboratoire de Physique des Océans - LPO

Centre de Recherche Halieutique Méditerranéenne et Tropicale - Ecosystèmes Marins Exploités - CRH-EME

Laboratoire des sciences de l’environnement marin - LEMAR

with french stakeholders:

Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - IRD (France)

Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers - CNRS-INSU (France)

Université de Bretagne Occidentale - UBO (France)

ICEMASA has been defined in close collaboration with African Center for Climate and Earth Systems Science - ACCESS. This latter offers educational programmes that include workshops and advanced seminars, coordinates research projects that include computer modeling of the atmosphere and ocean, makes available operational products related to environmental conditions, and provides information concerning future global warming.

Background

This initiative for setting up an international joint laboratory between the Republic of South Africa and France takes its roots in the collaboration initiated in 1997 between University of Cape Town (UCT), Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) and IRD. Over the years, the successive joint French/South-African VIBES, IDYLE and ECO-UP projects carried further the momentum initiated in 1997 by the research grant from the joint science and technology agreement signed between France and South Africa.