The Marine Research Strategy Guides Marine Research in Finland

Marine research has a long tradition in Finland, and Finnish marine research is internationally recognised for its high quality. The Marine Research Strategy seeks to safeguard the continuity of marine research while promoting its further development. Its vision is to support sustainable development through world-class marine research with global impact.

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The world’s seas, including the Baltic Sea, are threatened by the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and marine litter. Reversing these trends requires societal change, which in turn depends on up-to-date scientific knowledge of the marine environment.

Published in 2024, the Marine Research Strategy seeks to address this challenge. It sets out the general development objectives for marine research in Finland for the period 2024–2030 and identifies the key thematic priorities for research. The strategy also includes concrete measures to achieve these objectives.

The Marine Research Strategy forms part of Finland’s implementation of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030). The strategy was prepared by the Steering Group for the Ocean Decade in broad cooperation with marine research organisations and experts across the field. It also contributes to the implementation of the Finnish Government Resolution on the Action Plan for Maritime Policy (2022).

Marine Research Helps Us Understand the Sea and Its Changes

The Marine Research Strategy takes a global perspective. Finland’s coastal waters are part of the Baltic Sea, and the Baltic Sea is part of the world ocean that connects our planet. The ocean, in turn, is one of the Earth’s major natural systems, on which human well-being and livelihoods depend.

Human-induced changes affecting the marine environment are altering the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, with consequences that ultimately affect people themselves. These changes are extensive and complex, and they interact with one another in multiple ways.

Marine research helps us understand the characteristics and processes of the marine environment, as well as the relationship between people and the sea. As scientific knowledge grows, the use and management of marine resources can be guided towards sustainability. This requires long-term and systematic monitoring of the state of the seas, together with up-to-date research on marine ecosystems and the pressures they face.

The vision of the Marine Research Strategy is that Finnish marine research will produce internationally recognised, world-class scientific knowledge that supports the global goals of sustainable development: a healthy marine environment, thriving marine industries, and societal transformation towards sustainability.

The Four Main Themes of Marine Research

The Marine Research Strategy identifies four broad themes for marine research. Together, these themes cover different dimensions of the relationship between people and the sea. They are united by a common focus on the marine environment and the societal activities connected to it.

Engaging Society in the Production and Use of Marine Knowledge

The vision of world-class and impactful marine research set out in the Marine Research Strategy can be achieved by engaging society broadly in both the production and the use of marine knowledge. This ambition is reflected in the strategy’s five overarching development objectives.

These objectives are based on an analysis of the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats of Finnish marine research. The strategy process identified a number of key strengths, including a high level of expertise, excellent research quality and strong national and international networks. At the same time, challenges include the narrowness of expertise in certain fields, the relatively small number of researchers, and the fragmented nature of marine research across different organisations.

Development objectives for marine research:

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