A Norwegian company has been selected to design a new, cutting edge research vessel which will be used to explore Irish territorial waters.
The 50 metre-long ship will replace the Marine Institute's RV Celtic Voyager and is expected to put to sea for the first time in 2022.
Ship design consultants Skipsteknisk AS were chosen to lead the process, following an EU-wide tender process in recent months.
The Marine Institute says the new vessel will help gather essential data relating to all aspects of Ireland's maritime infrastructure.
It will be used for fisheries research, ocean mapping, environmental surveys and student training.
Part of the design stipulation is that the ship will be able to spend three weeks at sea.
After the design is finalised, the construction will be put to tender later this year.
The decision to replace the RV Celtic Voyager comes 21 years after it first came into service.
In that time, it has been used extensively by teams of marine researchers.
They have been able to employ technology on board the ship to locate never before seen coral reefs, as well as monitoring the effects of climate change and discovering rare fish breeding grounds off the Irish coast.
