Diving centre, Liguria Region enters with 10 million euro

Ten million Euros, coming from EU funds, will be allocated by the Liguria Region, over a three-year period (2026-2028), in favour of the La Spezia National Underwater Dimension Pole. This is how the authority led by Marco Bucci seals its entry into the Pns, which had been foreshadowed last summer by Admiral Giuseppe Berutti Bergotto, now Chief of Staff of the Navy, and now becomes a reality thanks to a recent regional resolution.

'Underwater,' Bucci emphasises, 'is the challenge of the future and Liguria is playing it as a protagonist, even anticipating some moves and claiming its role as the gateway to Europe. Economy and security run underwater: this is also demonstrated by the current international crises. Genoa has become a hub for submarine cables arriving from Africa, with the world's major players investing, setting up data centres and facilities for digital security. We supported this development, well aware that Liguria would become an information hub for billions of people but also for companies'.

The Ligurian territory, continued the governor, 'also boasts the best excellences from the point of view of underwater defence: highly specialised corps of the Navy have always been active in La Spezia, a city that has become the seat of the Underwater Pole, to which we have firmly adhered as a Region, certain that research, the development of systems and technologies, and the application of the considerable know-how available can offer an opportunity for growth, from a military but also civil point of view, with great prospects for the economy.

Of all this, Bucci emphasises, 'I had the opportunity to talk about it during a recent visit (22 April, ed.) to representatives of the European institutions. In the meetings I had with the President of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the two Commissioners Ekaterina Zaharieva (for Startups, Research and Innovation) and Olivér Várhelyi (for Health), the Director General of the EU Commission, Roberto Viola, and Ambassador Marco Canaparo, Italy's Deputy Permanent Representative to the Union, much was said about the excellence of the Liguria Region. The management of information through cables, submarine defence, the development of new technologies thanks to the Pns and the Pact for the Mediterranean (an EU programme to strengthen cooperation, including economic cooperation between the countries of the Mare nostrum, ed.) were the topics that attracted a great deal of attention: a strong invitation came from Brussels to continue along this path and to support cooperation between organisations and companies'.

Established in 2023, with an inter-ministerial decree signed in agreement between the Ministers of Defence, Enterprise and Industry and University and Research, the Pns is considered strategic for the consolidation of national leadership in the underwater sector. The structure brings together the Navy, companies, start-ups, universities and research centres: a total of some ninety entities, including the Friuli Venezia Giulia and (now) Liguria regions.