Our mission is to advance sustainable use of the marine environment through our systems-thinking approach to research, education and innovation.
Plymouth has been a focus for marine science for over 100 years. Our research and partnerships are fundamental in helping us understand the marine environment and how best to tackle the challenges it currently faces.
Professor Richard Thompson OBE FRS
Director of the Marine Institute
Our research on an international stage
Research priorities
- Towards net zero
- Sustainable blue economy
- Safe seas
- Healthy oceans
- Life on Earth is threatened by increasing temperature, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, resulting in flooding and wildfires.
- Our oceans absorb a substantial proportion of CO2 from the atmosphere, mitigating the rise in greenhouse gases to some extent, but this leads to ocean acidification.
- Changes are occurring at a faster rate than nature can adapt to.
- 40% of the world’s population live in coastal areas, with many relying on the ocean for their livelihoods.
- The marine environment is a major contributor to food security and 80% of global trade uses the seas, yet human activity is the primary cause for environmental degradation, putting those same livelihoods at risk.
- Technological, societal and environmental threats can result directly from human reliance on the ocean, as well as from natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis.
- Threats ranging from cyber attacks to coastal erosion or flooding all have the potential to cause major disruption.
- Accelerated industrial development, coupled with a progressively throw-away society, has played a significant role in the degradation of our oceans through pollution.
- These societal trends have serious negative effects for marine ecosystems, reducing our ability to rely on them as a source of food.
- We urgently need to optimise the sustainable use of our oceans for food and energy security, while protecting and improving planetary health
- To achieve our objectives, we need rapid acceleration in the development of digital technology.
Latest news in marine and maritime
The opensource LabEmbryoCam uses 3D-printed components to form a robotic microscope and is the result of over a decade of research at the University
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Researcher awarded place on prestigious Alan Turing Institute enrichment scheme
Matthew Faith is using the award to expand his work looking at changes among plankton communities in the Atlantic
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Ambitious study to explore effects of offshore wind farms on ocean life
Researchers from the University are involved in a new £3.5m project centred around the potential impacts of FLOW developments in the Celtic Sea
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Project explores possibilities for UK wetsuit recycling
The University will work with Circular Flow Ltd to examine the scope for developing a UK neoprene recycling facility
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Scientists embark on first study of Antarctica’s underwater avalanches
The Antarctic Canyon Experiment (ACE) is a five-year £2.4m project being led by the University of Plymouth
- More related news
Marine and maritime events
- How academic engagement with industry can create opportunities for enhanced funding, investment, impact and student experience 10 December 2024 12:00 - 13:30
- Is your research relevant to Clean Maritime? 12 December 2024 11:00 - 13:00
- The Cattewater Tudor Wreck in Plymouth: Excavation and Reinterpretation 17 December 2024 17:15 - 18:30
- Seaquest 12 January 2025 08:30 - 10:30
- Shoresearch Volunteer Survey 15 January 2025 12:00 - 14:00
Education and innovation
Industry support
- long-term strategic partnerships to help with product and performance testing, workforce development, and ongoing research and development support
- support to access public funds
- and access to a large talent pool of students and PhDs.
University student and staff opportunities
Contact the Marine Institute
Marine Institute, Level 3, Marine Building, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA