OCEANIC PLATFORM OF THE CANARY ISLANDS (PLOCAN)
Period of enjoyment: from January 2026 to June 2027.
The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands is a Unique Scientific-Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) whose mission is to promote the development of knowledge and technologies for the responsible and sustainable use of the ocean. PLOCAN offers offshore and on land infrastructures to test new technologies, materials, concepts or methodologies, providing services to users in the public and private sectors.
It comprises a fixed offshore platform with a net area of 2,500 m2 located near the coast at a depth of 30 m; a test site with an area of 23 Km2 that offers progressive depths from the coast to 600 meters, and constitutes an optimal ecosystem in terms of data, operational models, logistics, compatible infrastructures and connection to the electricity grid; an electrical and communications infrastructure for evacuation of the energy produced during the experimental tests; a base of autonomous underwater vehicles; an observatory aimed at monitoring global change processes, ocean health, exploration and environmental monitoring of the marine environment and biodiversity; and an onshore headquarters with workshops and laboratories.
Research lines offered by PLOCAN
| Line | Responsible Department | Short Description |
| 1. Ocean Observation and Forecasting Systems (OOFS) | Marine Observation/ Marine Digital Transformation | Acquisition, processing and analysis of oceanic and meteorological data series (buoys, HF-radar, gliders, and EGIM and FerryBox-type systems), multiparametric fixed platforms and EMSO-type observatory good practices, real-time quality control, passive acoustic monitoring and analysis of underwater noise aligned with MSFD Descriptor 11 (continuous low-frequency sound and impulsive noise), assimilation in numerical models |
| 2. AI-assisted Biodiversity Monitoring | Marine Observation / Ecosystems/ Marine Digital Transformation | Automatic processing of underwater images and acoustics, species detection through ML. |
| 3. Digital Twin of the Ocean – Canary Islands | Marine Digital Transformation/ | Fusion of in-situ data, remote sensing and high-resolution modeling to assess climate change scenarios and ecosystem services, including underwater soundscape layers and noise-pressure indicators for integrated coastal assessment of cumulative pressures where appropriate. |
| 4. FAIR Marine Data Infrastructures and Interoperability Frameworks | Marine Digital Transformation | Development of standards-based frameworks for the discovery, integration, management and reuse of marine data, combining semantic interoperability, ontologies and cloud-native technologies to support scientific exploitation, operational services and blue economy applications, with interfaces aligned to European marine data services (EMODnet, Copernicus Marine) for discovery, metadata and reuse. |
| 5. Marine Data Workflows and Operational Data Services | Marine Digital Transformation | Development of end-to-end marine data workflows for automated ingestion, processing, quality control, storage and publication, enabling reliable and scalable data services for scientific, technical and operational use, including automated dissemination routes to European data portals (e.g. EMODnet), traceable QC and reporting products supporting MSFD Descriptor 11 indicators where applicable. |
To solve any doubts concerning the research proposal or host insitution you may contact info@plocan.eu
All candidates must have previously contacted PLOCAN to validate their research proposal and provide proof of such approval. Proposals must be tailored to the research areas and groups of PLOCAN. General proposals or duplicated proposals will not be considered.
All candidates must also have the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out the research proposal before their arrival to PLOCAN.
Location: Carretera de Taliarte s/n (Faro), 35200, Telde, Gran Canaria, España.
Webpage: https://plocan.eu/
*PLOCAN does not provide nor has any requirements regarding accommodation. It is the fellow’s responsibility to secure it and inform both parties, at least, 1 month before arrival in Spain.