UK launches GBP 120 million programme of marine research

The UK’s National Environment Research Council (NERC) has launched Oceans 2025, an ambitious GBP120 million five-year programme of research that will involve all of the country’s seven major marine research institutes.

The programme will provide research funding for universities and other partners also.

By 2025 the demand for natural resources will have increased by at least a third, while sea levels will have risen by 10-15 cm. The forecast 30 percent decrease in the extent of Arctic sea ice will radically change ecosystems and accelerate climate change. Oceans 2025 aims to understand the size, nature and impacts of these changes, and address some of the most fundamental issues in marine science.

The coordinated approach from the marine institutes, with cooperation and input from other government agencies and departments, will improve understanding of how the seas behave and how they are changing. Oceans 2025 will be critical also to developing sustainable solutions for the management of marine resources for future generations.

“Through bringing a huge swathe of strategic marine science into a single 'Oceans 2025' programme, and designing it with UK policy needs in mind, the UK is much better positioned to use ocean research findings to protect and sustainably manage and develop our seas,” said Howard Dalton, Chief Scientific Advisor to Defra.

Reaching agreement on a coordinated, co-operative research programme of the scale and complexity of Oceans 2025 is a very important step, developing the cross disciplinary partnerships required to study and find solutions to the pressing issues of change at sea.