ECIMAT is the University of Vigo´s marine research station. It was inaugurated in 2006, and it was built with the objective of providing state of the art infrastructures to achieve research excellence in marine science, in response to the marine vocation of the University of Vigo, which leads marine research in Spain.

ECIMAT provides state of the art marine research facilities and serves as an integrating element for the Sea Research cluster Océano-ECIMAT. The cluster, funded by the Galician government, includes 18 research teams and the main research priorities relate to ocean observation and global change, marine environmental quality and marine pollution, sustainable use of marine resources, integral management of the coastal zone, modelling of complex systems and omic technologies applied to the marine environment.