Marine Sciences Programme in Galicia

The Marine Sciences Programme in Galician is part of the Joint Marine Sciences Program in Spain in collaboration with another 6 Spanish Regions to deploy a joint research and innovation strategy in marine sciences to sustainably address the new challenges in monitoring and observing the marine environment, climate change, aquaculture and other sectors of the blue economy and to create synergies, align the execution of funds and establish common priorities across regions. We have three main lines of action or objectives:
i) Implementing a sustained and integrated observation and monitoring of marine ecosystems: we will generate a long-term monitoring strategy of the marine ecosystem in Galicia in all its dimensions, with the ultimate aim of obtaining the necessary information to guarantee a better and more sustainable use of its resources and services. In order to achieve the optimal functioning of this strategy, we will develop, validate and deploy a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary set of highly innovative and efficient tools and technologies to achieve a sustained monitoring and observation of the sea. It covers the most relevant observational variables by expanding the number and quality of the data, optimizing the cost associated with obtaining it where possible. To manage information and the services that depend on it, we are designing and building an integrated data platform, while building heterogeneous information integration tools based on complex modelling, data science and artificial intelligence.
ii) Fostering precise and sustainable aquaculture production: our scientific community will develop advanced research in genomics for the improvement of aquatic production; will develop tools for sustainable seed supply in bivalve mollusc aquaculture, solving one of the big problems in our sector; it will improve the strategies of diagnosis, prevention and control of pathologies, promoting good practices related to animal welfare; it will generate new sustainable farming systems based on integrated multitrophic aquaculture and, finally, investigating on Welfare Operational Indicators for a healthy and sustainable aquaculture.
iii) Promoting social and economic transformation, the transfer, training and capitalization of knowledge towards a truly sustainable blue economy, with more capacity for proposal and transformation, to adapt to the challenges arising from the ecological and digital transition in a context of global change. The aim is to achieve sustainable and resilient development of the coastal communities in Galicia. We will investigate measures to adapt and mitigate the pressures and vectors of change that are occurring in our social, economic and ecological environment, paying attention to ecosystem services and socio-ecological systems. We will develop an integrated management model for the flow of scientific knowledge in marine sciences, specifically adapted to the environmental, socio-cultural, economic and institutional context of Galicia.

Marine Sciences Programme in Galicia is co-funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the government of Spain (Investment 1 of Component 17 of the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the EU Next Generation funds) and the government of the Autonomous Community of Galicia (Xunta de Galicia).