A research cruise for 40 days in the Red Sea were initially requested but due to the demanding schedule of the research ship R/V Urania only 29 days of ship time was granted.
Since the study area in the Red Sea is located in the Egyptian, Saudi and Sudanese Waters it was mandatory to acquire permission to work, from the respective governments. These permissions were granted by Egypt, under the clause of having observers on board and with restriction for work inside the territorial and contiguous waters. The Saudi Arabian Government gave the permissions under an agreement with the Saudi Geological Survey. Sudanese authorities released permissions, under the clause of having two Sudanese scientists onboard.
Geophysical equipment for e.g. Multibeam Echosounder was rented from Reson, whereas multichannel systems was provided by ISMAR. Water samplers for brine sampling and analytical equipment were provided by the University of Kiel. Geological equipment, e.g. rock cutters and related gadgets were provided by ISMAR, in addition to computing devices for multibeam, seismic and general-purpose processing.