National Marine Science Committee – Marine science driving the blue economy

Marine science driving the development
of Australia's blue economy

A New Decade (2025-2035)

The National Marine Science Committee (NMSC) has begun a process to develop a new national decadal strategy for marine science, and an associated plan to deliver on this strategy. This Strategy and Plan will follow on from the 2015-2025 Plan and an update and assessment of progress in the NMSC Midway report.

NMSC has designed this process to ensure that “The Strategy” is focussed on coordinating and delivering high- quality marine science to support priorities identified by intergovernmental processes (e.g., UN Sustainable Development Goals, Ocean Decade; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Conference of the Parties (COP), World Ocean Assessment (WOA),etc.), National and State governments (e.g., National Science and Research Priorities, Australia’s Sustainable Ocean Plan (SOP), etc.), industry peak bodies, NGOs, communities, and First Nations peoples.

This is a complex task, and we are counting on the broad science and end-user communities to collaboratively develop a strategy and plan we can collectively support.

Over the next months, we invite the marine science community and interested end-users to collaborate and contribute to the new National Marine Science Strategy (2025-2035) through:

Developing White Papers
focused on describing the science required to satisfy priority national end-user needs, and maximize societal benefits and the best means to deliver this science.

Information on the White Paper process

Participating in the National Marine Science Symposium
in June 2025 to review the white papers and discuss priority recommendations for the NMSS (2025-2035).

Supporting the Official Launch
of the National Marine Science Strategy (NMSS) 2025-2035 at Parliament House, Canberra, in November 2025.

Developing the New National Marine Science Strategy (2025-2035)

In August 2024, NMSC leaders identified key Focal Areas to shape the new NMSS. These areas draw on national and international priorities, including the Sustainable Oceans Plan, the UN Ocean Decade, and the 2015 National Marine Science Plan review.

The Focus Areas are grouped into two themes: Challenges & Opportunities and Enablers. The lead authors for each Focus Area are highlighted in blue.

Challenges and Opportunities
- Valuing and Incorporating First Nations traditional knowledge and management approaches: Libby Evans-Illidge (AIMS), Cass Hunter (CSIRO), Chels Marshall (Deakin), Duane Fraser (NESP)
- Climate and Oceans: Bernadette Sloyan (CSIRO) and Merk Hemer (CSIRO)
- Protecting Biodiversity and Ecosystem Health: Piers Dunstan (CSIRO), Richard Pillans (CSIRO), Cathrine Lovelock (UQ)
- Enabling a Sustainable Blue Economy: Nico Adams (JCU), Chris Frid (Griffith), Angela Williamson (BECRC)
- Planning Urban and Coastal Development, Infrastructure, and Services: Ryan Lowe (UWA), Pascal Perez (AURIN/UMel)
- Maintaining Food Security: Sean Tracey (UTAS), David Smith (UTAS), Dirk Zeller (UWA)
- Energy Security, Diversification, and achieving Net-Zero: Christophe Gaudin (UWA), Naomi Campbell (Energise Renewables Pty Ltd), Alan Jordan (UTAS), Luke Twomey (WAMSI)
- Maintaining Sovereignty, Securing, and Defending Australia: Sarah Lothian (ANCORS), Prakash Gopal (ANCORS)
- Protecting Australia’s Cultural Heritage: Toni Massey (Queensland Museum), Emily Jateff (Australian National Maritime Museum)
- Climate and Green Engineering: Bronte Tilbrook (CSIRO), Lennart Bach (UTAS), Andrew Lenton (CSIRO), Kerryn Brent (CSIRO)
- Integrated Ocean Management: Beth Fulton (CSIRO), Alistair Hobday (CSIRO)
- Ocean Accounting: Ben Milligan (UNSW), Philip James (UNSW), Rowan Trebilco (CSIRO)
- Ecosystem Restoration and Repair: Megan Saunders (CSIRO), Melinda Coleman (NSW DPI), Line Bay (AIMS)

Enablers
- Education, Training, Ocean Literacy: Prue Francis (Deakin), Louise Swanson (Harbour School Sydney), Rachel Kelly (UTAS)
- Research Infrastructure: Michelle Heupel (IMOS), Mike Steer (SARDI), Ilona Stobutzki (CSIRO)
- Engineering, Prototyping, and Technology Development & Robotics, Autonomy, and Automation: Andreas Marouchos (CSIRO), Melanie Olsen (AIMS), Stefan Williamson (USYD)
- AI and Machine learning: Kamran Shaffi (AIMS) and Ariell Friedman (Greybits Engineering)
- Data through to information: Mark Rehbein (AODN), Tim Moltmann (NESP), Alekandar Zivaljevic (AIMS)
- Omics, Synthetic Biology, and Biotechnology: Matthew Nitschke (AIMS), Oliver Berry (CSIRO)
- Modeling and Quantitative Science: Emlyn Jones (CSIRO), Christpher Brown (UTAS), Louise Bruce (BMT)
- Understanding Marine Science and Society: Pedro Fidelman (UQ), Carla Sbrocchi (UTS), Emily Ogier (UTAS)