From 6 to 13 July École Polytechnique, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS) du Quebec, ENSTA Bretagne with two teams, ESIEA Paris with two teams, Heriot-Watt University, University of Bremen, University of Cambridge, University of Florence, University of Genoa, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria - AVORA, University of Luebeck with two teams, University of West England, participate in the 2012 SAUC-Europe (Student Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Challenge – Europe www.sauc-europe.com) edition at STO-CMRE (Science and Technology Organization – Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation, formerly NURC), hosting it for the third time.

For one week, 15 teams of students, coming from 12 Universities, compete and test their autonomous underwater vehicles at the CMRE waterfront in La Spezia (Italy).

On 13 July 2012, journalists have the possibility to attend the final runs of the competition, interview the participants and meet CMRE representatives.

The NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) is hosting a serious gaming event called the Harbour Protection Table-Top Exercise (HPT2E) which aims to significantly advance interoperability and capabilities in maritime security. Sponsored by NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division Defence Against Terrorism programme of work, the exercise, held 20-23 March at La Spezia, Italy, focuses on the protection of military forces, shipments, and critical civilian infrastructure in ports and harbours during times of high threat alert.

Exercise Proud Manta 12 (POMA 12), which includes participating ships and aircraft from nine NATO nations, will be held from 14 to 26 February off the coast of Sicily. POMA 12 will include major scientific tests during the exercise. Scientists from the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) will be testing technologies and software that have been developed at the Centre to study detection and tracking of objects in the marine environment using sonar.

On Monday 1st August, at 8.40 AM, the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) oceanographic vessel Alliance came to the rescue of an 18 metre pleasure craft in Italian international waters, near the port of Savona in the Ligurian Sea. The bridge watchkeepers noticed a motor yacht on fire at about 5 miles distance. The NURC crew promptly raised the alarm with the Italian Coastguard and launched a Delta Fast Rescue Boat. Six people were saved uninjured, but visibly shocked: an Italian family of five and an Ecuadorian woman.

University of Luebeck from Germany, triumphed over 9 other teams to win the SAUC-E ’11, the 6th Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge Europe. The team’s AUV called “Hanse” got the highest score successfully completing a number of mission tasks assigned. The 2nd prize went to University of Girona (2010 Champions) from Spain with its AUV “Sparus”, while DFKI Bremen from Germany took home the 3rd prize, closely followed by ENSTA Bretagne (4th). Heriot-Watt University entered the final phase and got the “Cooperation Award”

From 4 to 10 July, 10 teams coming from 10 prestigious universities and 4 different countries are participating in the event in La Spezia (Italy).
After the success of the 2010 edition, SAUC-E (Student Autonomous Underwater vehicle Challenge - Europe) returns for the second time to NURC (NATO Undersea Research Centre), the event organizer. In this 6-year-old challenge, university students compete using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that they have designed and built.

The early stage of the European project ARGOMARINE (Automatic Oil Spill Recognition and Geopositioning integrated in a Marine Monitoring Network – www.argomarine.eu) has come to an end on May 6 at NURC in La Spezia, with the completion of the first at-sea test. This 3 year project aims at creating an integrated system dedicated to the monitoring of the marine environment for oil spills

From 24 January to 11 February, in the Ionian Sea to the southeast of Sicily, three gliders participated for the first time in an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) exercise. During Proud Manta 11, NURC--a NATO Research Centre in La Spezia--successfully used the gliders to collect in situ, three-dimensional environmental data to support improved operational planning and decision-making tools.

4 July 2010, La Spezia, Italy -- The University of Girona, Spain, triumphed over 8 other teams to win the SAUC-E ’10, the 5th Student Autonomous Underwater Challenge Europe.

The CATHARSIS2 sea trial, scheduled for 5-20 October 2009 in the waters near Elba Island, Italy, will investigate novel object detection technologies. Scientists will deploy autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) equipped with advanced sensors to detect and locate dummy mines (with no explosives) that are used in this exercise.

The NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) in La Spezia, Italy, celebrates its 50th anniversary with a series of events, spread over the week of 20-25 April, and concluding with the participation with the City of La Spezia to the “Festa della Marineria” (Marine Festival) 11-16 June 2009.

The NATO Research Vessel (NRV) ALLIANCE will be making port calls at Istanbul, Constanta and Varna during a research cruise under the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC) to study factors supporting the safety of maritime operations/shipping, and environmental monitoring and protection.