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The EU-funded MONUSEN project connected the University of Montenegro with experienced partners across Europe, including the University of Zagreb in Croatia, the National Research Council of Italy, and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. The aim was to strengthen Montenegro’s research capacity in underwater sensor networks and create long-term partnerships in the highly specialised area of underwater communication and marine robotics.
Researchers at the University of Montenegro already had decades of experience in complex sensing and communication systems. Teams at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering had worked extensively on land-based wireless sensor networks and autonomous mobile sensing platforms. But diving into underwater systems proved far from straightforward.
“Some approaches that work well in terrestrial networks simply can’t be transferred underwater,” explains Igor Radusinović, MONUSEN’s project coordinator. “Underwater, the constraints reshape everything – from bandwidth and power consumption, to how you design robust control and autonomy for marine platforms.”
Working closely with project partners, the team realised that underwater systems needed to prioritise reliability, autonomy and security. This fed into new approaches to communication protocols and network design that were developed collaboratively and tested experimentally.
From knowledge transfer to joint research
Hands-on collaboration was central to the project. Over the course of MONUSEN, six staff exchanges, each lasting two months, placed Montenegrin researchers inside partner laboratories in Croatia, Italy and the United Kingdom.
In parallel, 12 expert visits and 12 hands-on training sessions brought partner teams to Montenegro, giving local researchers access to new equipment and experimental set-ups.
A fifth of MONUSEN’s time was set aside for joint research, which proved pivotal. Teams carried out more than 10 joint experiments, focusing on underwater communication, acoustic-based positioning, and control methods for autonomous mobile sensing platforms. Exposure to real-world testing quickly reshaped the research agenda.
“Knowledge transfer was not just theoretical,” says Radusinović. “Working side by side with our partners allowed us to understand the real limitations of underwater technologies and to redesign our research accordingly.”
The project also placed strong emphasis on dissemination and visibility. Three research and industry workshops and three summer schools were organised, which helped to position the University of Montenegro within a wider international research community and created practical links between research and real operational needs.
The joint work also delivered concrete outputs, including 27 scientific publications, early-stage prototypes and three national-level patent applications, complementing the project’s capacity-building goals with tangible research results. Additionally, the initiative helped widen participation locally, through workshops with early career researchers, including PhD candidates working in the field for the first time at the university.
Lasting collaboration
MONUSEN came to an end in May 2025, but for the project team, success is measured by what is happening next.
Collaboration with the University of Zagreb has already moved into a new, nationally funded project aligned with the research developed by MONUSEN. At the same time, work with Newcastle University has expanded into a new joint research initiative, building directly on the work carried out during the project.
Most importantly, new Horizon proposals are also being developed with MONUSEN partners, with teams from the University of Montenegro contributing as full partners – in the design, construction and testing of new underwater sensing solutions.
“MONUSEN has created lasting collaboration,” notes Radusinović. “We are now part of ongoing research, new proposals and partnerships that simply would not have existed before.”
What started out as a project for capacity-building evolved into long-term cooperation, and has given the University of Montenegro a front-seat role in the development of next-generation underwater technologies.