Developed at a depth of 2,500 meters off the coast of Toulon, the MEUST (Mediterranean Eurocentre for Underwater Sciences and Technologies) submarine infrastructure is a multidisciplinary scientific and technological platform open to the international community and integrated into the European networks of KM3NeT neutrino telescopes and EMSO submarine observatories. This unique infrastructure provides the electro-optical interfaces necessary for the operation and acquisition of the KM3NeT/ORCA detector lines, as well as for multiple and varied instrumentation for real-time observation of the marine environment at great depths. The second phase of the project, named NUMerEnv (Neutrinos-Sea-Environment), aims at an extension of this underwater infrastructure which will allow the installation of about thirty additional lines for the detection of neutrinos, but also an important enrichment of the studies of the abyssal environment.

This technological campaign requested has three objectives that call for different equipment and skills. The accepted campaign is  therefore foreseen to be carried out in three missions.

The first mission is dedicated to the realization of a bathymetric cartography using an AUV of different geographical areas of the observation site. This mission, scheduled in March 2022, finally led to any dive of the AUV due to bad weather conditions on the site during the whole campaign.

Mission 2 is dedicated to the intervention of the HROV on site for equipment control and interoperability tests for the installation and recovery of scientific equipment. This mission also allows a visual control of the events detected during the first mission. This mission, scheduled in September 2022, has finally been cancelled during the year for budget reasons.

Mission 3 foresees a multitube coring at the "EMSO Ligure West" station in order to validate the HROV coring by comparison with a reference method (multitube corer). These cores will also provide access to the geochemical information that will determine the size of a new "Bathy-Prof" profiler that will eventually be installed on the "BathyBot" benthic robot. This mission, scheduled in October 2022, has also been cancelled during the year for budget reasons.