Today in the shipyards of Piombino Industrie Marittime (PIM) The ceremony of laying the keel and coins took place of the new oceanographic ship Arcadia destined for the Institute Superior for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA). Arcadia represents a new generation of units dedicated to the scientific research and the protection of the marine environment. Long about 70 meters, will be equipped with state-of-the-art technological systems generation: autonomous underwater vehicles (ROVs) capable of operating up to 4,000 meters deep, modular laboratories and storage spaces designed to accommodate up to 18 researchers, as well as to the crew. Thanks to these endowments, ISPRA will be able to expand and make more effective its monitoring, mapping and study of marine and coastal ecosystems, with particular attention to the deep seabed and the most fragile of the Mediterranean. The ship will operate under the PNRR MER Project, Mission 2 "Green Revolution and Transition Ecological", the largest national program dedicated to to the protection of the sea and the strengthening of research environmental.

Today's event marks the official start of the construction of the ship entrusted to the T. Mariotti shipyard, part of the Genoa group Industrie Navali (GIN), following the public tender launched by Invitalia on behalf of ISPRA for a total investment of about 107 million euros. The naval unit will be carried out in the production areas of Piombino, in collaboration with PIM.