The Project

A laboratory of its own for the bay

CubanWaterLab is the working name of the project “In situ monitoring of water quality in Cuban bays: creating and promoting the use of scientific tools,” a five-year cooperation between the University of Havana and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

To provide the Cuban scientific-social ecosystem with a set of tools that enables in situ monitoring of water-quality parameters in Cuban bays, in a sustainable way and connected to local communities.

Design and build a wave channel at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Havana
Design and build instruments and low-cost portable tools for in situ measurements of water quality, eventually able to be installed in existing buoys
Set up a server with a website to receive data from the in situ measurements
Establish a methodology for maintaining the in situ measurements together with fishers and communities
Train the corresponding human resources, in Cuba and in Belgium

Participating institutions

Universidad de La Habana Université Libre de Bruxelles

Cooperating

CIMAB Espoleta Tecnologías

Collaborating

Cujae Geocuba Grupo Estatal Bahía de La Habana Université Catholique de Louvain

“Despite the country's dramatic economic situation, which has seriously eroded the participants' living conditions, cut off all access to existing buoys, and left infrastructure with zero maintenance from outside the team's efforts, the project is reaching such a level of maturity that a growing ramp of scientific results is expected in the coming months.”

Dr. C. Ernesto Altshuler Álvarez — Project director, April–June 2026 report

Funding

CubanWaterLab exists thanks to the financial support of ARES (Académie de Recherche et d'Enseignement Supérieur), the Belgian federation of higher-education institutions that drives university development-cooperation projects. ARES funds the project; it is neither its name nor its author.

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