Socio-Oceanography is a NOC (National Oceanography Centre) cross-cutting theme, aiming to promote integrated marine research inclusive of strong social science that is required for the delivery of sustainable ocean futures. The inherent interconnectivity between the ocean and society ensures that nearly everything we do in the marine natural sciences has the potential to influence and, perhaps address, ongoing and future societal challenges.
This cross-cutting theme represents a decisive action by natural scientists to expand their collaborative boundaries, develop and strengthen their narratives of contribution to solution agendas, and uses the concept of “socio-oceanography” as a viable framework to facilitate this.
We recognise that networks involving social and natural scientists are most successful when they are output-oriented and present opportunities to work together in producing a common output. Our highly successful national annual workshops for Socio-Oceanography bring together a mix of natural and environmental scientists, each working towards producing an output such as opinion papers, funding proposals and innovative multidisciplinary forms of communication.