Collaboration 

The Marine Studies Initiative amplifies Oregon State University’s world leadership in addressing key societal issues for today and the future through real-world, solutions-based inquiry, and collaboration across disciplines.

Message from Marine Studies Initiative Leadership

JUST AS THE OCEAN HAS INSPIRED CREATIVITY FOR MILLENNIA, the Marine Studies Initiative (MSI) harnesses people’s fascination with the sea and all it touches to motivate the next generation of students and citizens. Through its collaborative, transdisciplinary programs, the MSI  provides innovative approaches to solving ocean-related societal challenges. 

The MSI is guided by a strategic plan based on the efforts of more than 125 Oregon State faculty and students, educational partners from across the state, and hundreds of conversations with Oregon citizens and decision makers over the last year. During the planning process, working groups produced series of reports.

Building on Oregon State’s half-century of excellence in marine sciences, to the MSI is creating a globally distinct program that blends the natural and social sciences, business, engineering, education, the arts and humanities.
The initiative  provides a transformational educational experience centered on marine studies, increases access to higher education for Oregon’s coastal communities, elevates our transdisciplinary research to even
greater global distinction, sustains and enhances the state’s marine-related economy, and increases marine literacy across Oregon. Please join us as we set sail on this exciting voyage.

For more information about our planning, check out reports and documents produced by working groups and committees. 

Marine Studies Initiative 10-Year Strategic Plan (2016-2025)

The world’s ocean belongs to everyone, and its health is critical to the future. The ocean is an essential life support system, absorbing carbon dioxide and heat from the atmosphere, generating up to half of the world’s supply of oxygen, producing essential protein for nearly 3 billion people, regulating global climate and providing many resources used by humans. The ocean impacts everything from weather patterns and whale migration to inland agriculture, freshwater aquifers, public health, seafood security and the economic vitality of communities along the coast and inland. Marine habitats, nearshore ecosystems and coastal communities face daunting pressures that threaten their sustainability — climate change, ocean acidification, rising sea levels, variable fish stocks, natural and human-caused disasters and many others.

For full PDF of 10-Year Strategic Plan click here

 

Marine Studies Initiative Vision Plan

The MSI Vision Plan, a focused version of our strategic plan, reviews how Oregon State University and its partners  achieve the successful stewardship of the ocean, including the wealth of benefits it provides to people for today and into the future. This vision is based on the efforts of more than 125 Oregon State faculty and students, educational partners from across the state, and hundreds of conversations with Oregon citizens and decision makers over the last year.

For full PDF of Vision Plan click here.