Norway, guest of honour from the 2018 edition Guest of honour at Sea Tech Week 2018, Norway will be represented by its ambassador in France, Rolf-Einar FIFE, who heads a delegation grouping together fifteen or so representatives from the private sector, from Innovation Norway as well as scientists including Sissel ROGNE, Managing Director of the prestigious Institute of Marine Research in Bergen. A country whose economy is closely linked to marine activities, the 2nd largest exporter of seafood in the world, Norway prioritised sustainable development very early in the day, as Rolf-Einar FIFE confirms: “ We received the invitation from Sea Tech Week with a combined sense of pleasure and relevance: it offers our specialists the privileged opportunity to remind visitors about the fantastic opportunities offered by the sea, as well as the need to ensure the various marine activities coexist harmoniously, and the responsibilities we need to take on in terms of the renewal of natural resources and the struggle against all forms of pollution ”. In addition to its interventions across several workshops, on the morning of Wednesday 10 October the Norwegian delegation is planning to set up a seminar on the latest technologies and methods for better management of marine resources in the small Théâtre at Le Quartz in Brest.
Delegations from Asia and America
Together with the delegation from the South Coast Marine Cluster in Plymouth – a city twinned with Brest –, which will benefit from a dedicated pavilion within the trade show, this year’s presence of delegations from China, India, Vietnam and Quebec further reinforces the international dimension of an event dedicated to exchanges between potential researchers, institutions and partners from all countries. Made up of representatives from the Ocean University of China and marine research institutes in Qingdao – a city also twinned with Brest -, the Chinese delegation will offer a workshop on sciences and technologies of the sea jointly designed by academic establishments in both cities. Around twenty or so protagonists will make up Quebec’s delegation, including Guillaume Saint-Onge, co-director of the Institut France-Québec Maritime (France-Quebec Institute for scientific cooperation to support the maritime sector), who will host a special day of exchanges around marine bioresources. He will be accompanied by Yves-Marie Paulet, second co-director of the IFQM and Mer vice chairman from the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (University of Western Brittany) and Matthieu Gallou, president of the IFQM and the UBO.
Grouping together a dozen or so teachers and researchers from the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Goa, including its director, the Indian delegation will offer a workshop aimed at organising the programme of cooperation set out in the letter of intent signed jointly by the Campus Mondial de la Mer, Naval Group and IIT Goa.
The challenges of the Ocean Hackathon by way of a warm-up
As a prelude to Sea Tech Week, Ocean Hackathon will take place at the ENSTA Bretagne de Brest, a French Grande Ecole which offers multidisciplinary engineering programmes, from 5 to 7 October: an event designed for candidates wishing to join a group or provide expertise, with a view to taking up one of 22 challenges selected this year. With areas of application varying from the circular economy to marine biodiversity, management and recovering of waste, as well as renewable energies, sea safety, scientific mediation or art, the event is now broadening its scope to an international public. Indeed, in addition to the French teams presented by the towns of Brest, Nantes, Rennes, Roscoff or Senlis, this 3rd edition will play host to protagonists posing original challenges from Dakar in Senegal, from Kribi in Cameroon, from Ostend in Belgium and Rimouski in Canada (registration open at www.ocean-hackathon.fr through until Wednesday 3 October). www.seatechweek.eu
Twitter
Linkedin | 
