Marine science and innovation strategy

3. What we do

i. Strategic Outcomes

The outcomes in the Marine Science and Innovation Strategy reflect Scottish Government's vision for the Blue Economy, itself building on the UN SDGs, the National Performance Framework for Scotland and other relevant Scottish Government strategic priorities. The strategic outcomes set out what we want to achieve, where we must lead, where and who to work closely with and how we will successfully deliver our mission. These outcomes will ensure that our science, evidence and data strengthens real world impacts we have.

These outcomes align with the priorities of other key national and international organisations, which are equally focused on delivering high quality research and innovation for the benefit and enrichment of our lives, our economy and our marine environment. The latter two of which are not mutually exclusive outcomes, our evidence and data should be working for both to be realised in order that we can meet and manage our current needs as an island Nation but also into the future, when for example if sea levels rise as estimated the role our seas play in food and energy security will become increasingly important. To make the most of the opportunities while managing the challenges we will engage in horizon scanning to determine what's needed for Scotland, for example in e(environmental)DNA or seaweed biotechnology.

The outcomes recognise the context in which we operate, namely towards delivering our long- term ambition for Scotland's blue economy, and the important contribution we can make to national and global efforts – alongside our partners and stakeholders. We can do much more together when our approach is one of strategic collaboration and clarity around the role government should play in direct delivery, commissioning and convening. Our contribution to that collaborative approach includes our long term data collection and analysis, our research vessels and our aquarium. Marshalling that collective evidence allows us to be at the vanguard of resilient marine policy development and adaptive management.

The Scottish Coastal Observatory (SCOBs) Story

The Marine Directorate started the Scottish Coastal Observatory in 1997. This programme fulfils statutory environmental marine monitoring obligations under the Marine Scotland Act, the UK Marine Strategy and the Oslo/Paris Commission (OSPAR) Quality Status Assessments.

Citizen science

Key to the success of this programme has been the input from the voluntary samplers who have been collecting samples and maintaining sampling kit monitoring began.

SCObs data have provided the first sustained description of Scotland's coastal environment. Observed changes since 1997 include a decline in the saltiness of seawater and levels of silicate, a nutrient essential for the growth of diatoms (an ecologically important type of microscopic marine plant) at some sites. Changes in the diversity of the plankton community (microscopic plants and animals) have also been recorded. SCObs data collection is ongoing with new information gathered weekly to understand the impacts of climate change and biodiversity loss on Scotland's coastal environment.

The Marine strategic outcomes for science and innovation are presented below. As already outlined, their direction is set by a focus on the delivery of Scotland's Blue Economy (outcome one), and how the Marine Directorate will enact the science and innovation capacity to do that (outcomes two to six). The outcomes have been developed in collaboration with internal and external stakeholders demonstrating our commitment to working in partnership, and ensuring that the strategy encompasses the breadth and depth of work we produce, as well as the full extent of what we can achieve together as a nation.

Our six outcomes

i. The Marine Directorate, with the rest of Scottish Government, delivers our Blue Economy vision. Our long-term ambition demonstrates the value we place on our marine environment and natural capital and its significance to the health of our planet. Scotland's shared stewardship of our marine environment supports ecosystem health, improved livelihoods, economic prosperity, social inclusion and wellbeing.

ii. Scottish Government's marine and freshwater management, policies and plans are informed by science, evidence and advice that's continuously improving and innovating and based on quality data and analysis and supported by strong collaboration across the science (natural and social) community.

iii. With our partners we aspire to co-create a Scotland-wide delivery approach to marine research that develop communities of practice, which harness our collective expertise in marine research across Scotland. These communities of practice would work together to deliver the scale of our collective aspirations as an Island Nation and attract world class talent to deliver the science, technology and innovation Scotland needs in the marine and freshwater environments to deliver the Blue Economy. Thereby ensuring we are returning the best value for Scotland and cementing the Nation as one of the centres for marine research globally.

Rising ocean temperatures

Around 90% of the additional heat from global warming has been taken up by our seas and ocean. These ocean temperature changes are having an impact on the marine ecosystem; for example, causing changes in species distribution and timing of life history events. In Scottish waters, a range of ocean processes has meant the rate of warming is variable in space and time. Scottish waters (coastal and oceanic) have warmed by between 0.05 and 0.07 °C per decade, across the period 1870-2016. Climate extremes, such as the marine heatwave observed in summer 2023, are also expected to increase in frequency and intensity, as the climate continues to warm.

iv. The Marine Directorate will complement its existing work through collaboration nationally and internationally in a manner that fosters bold, innovative solutions, and technologies to deliver the scientific solutions – such as Scotland's existing work on Blue Carbon - to the challenges we face as a nation, and as a planet.

v. The Marine Directorate will develop its ability to anticipate, respond innovatively and adapt efficiently to opportunities and emerging challenges, such as the twin threats of climate change and biodiversity loss.

vi. Our assets, in particular our aquarium and national reference laboratory, provide national value to Scotland across industry, the scientific community and in delivering a public service; informing contingency planning for disease outbreaks, collecting valuable data and enabling innovation, research and development.

Novel tools for biodiversity monitoring

Marine Directorate had been using alternative, non- invasive approaches to monitor marine biodiversity. By analysing signatures of environmental DNA (eDNA), shed into environment by living organisms, presence of different species can be predicted simultaneously and without directly collecting or observing them. Monitoring based on detection of eDNA has been successfully applied when investigating presence and distribution of both protected as well as invasive non-native species in Scottish coastal waters.

ii. Strategic Enablers: people; data, digital; and infrastructure

To deliver on the new science and innovation strategy we need to ensure our strategic enablers to the strategy are adequately resourced and positioned. We will also foster a culture which is high impact and high performing as a consequence of our intentional choice to be courageously curious, where colleagues are empowered and creativity flourishes and our approach to communication breaks down barriers and silo's so that we enhance our collaboration - internally and externally.

People

The first of our enablers is People and we will create an excellent place to work that fosters - as a priority - diversity, inclusivity, and the development of talent in order to recruit, develop and retain a highly skilled, curious and creative workforce. Going forwards we will need a mixture of generalist science and engineering skills in addition to deep specialist knowledge for particular areas. We will ensure, through the further and consistent development of science, analytical and engineering as professions within government, that all our colleagues are developed to fulfil their potential and have a built-in ability to be agile through having discrete, time bound, integrated multi-disciplinary delivery teams across Marine.

This will include working closely with the new Chief Scientific Adviser, Marine and Scottish Government's Head of Profession for Science in addition to the Marine Directorate's own professional leads to ensure we have clear progression routes and development opportunities to create a high performing working environment where colleagues can flourish and reach their potential while creating clear impact for Scotland.

We will also continue to ensure that we create the environment where our colleagues adopt the best practice approach to science and government policy by following accepted government advice and norms on the independence and integrity of science. By putting innovation as a key element of this strategy we will also intentionally incorporate continuous improvement into all we do. We will foster partnerships and a collaborative approach across the whole of Scotland as part of our 'DNA' to intentionally create the greatest value for Scotland as a return on the investment into science, evidence and data in Marine Directorate.

Data and Digital

The second strategic enabler is around our Data and Digital. We need to deliver the Marine Directorate Science and Innovation Strategy in a manner that incorporates Scottish Government's digital commitments and aspirations captured in A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world and in Scotland's Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

For the Marine Directorate this means, in line with principles of transparency and sharing our assets for the benefit of Scotland, we will commit to open access, high-quality data and information services, which meet the needs of Scottish Government, our partners and stakeholders around our strategic focus on the blue economy. By doing so it will enhance data capability for modelling and new technology purposes, which will, for example, in some cases be delivered through 'Cloud Based Infrastructure'.

To effectively manage and share the data collected, the Marine Directorate follows the FAIR principles (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable), to optimise reuse of data where possible and permissible. These principles offer a well-structured approach for improving our stewardship and data governance, ensuring we continue publishing open data to support and underpin scientific analyses in a transparent and trusted way.

Innovation and the development of new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, offers opportunities for monitoring, modelling, and understanding of our marine and freshwater environments (e.g., through use of WeeHoloCam, drones and submersibles). To make best use of these opportunities, Marine Directorate will invest in and develop digital methods for handling large volumes of data, increasingly captured in real time or near real time.

With growing amounts of data arriving at a faster pace, Marine Directorate will also develop capabilities, infrastructure, and tools to model our oceans and make use of Artificial Intelligence and large language models for efficient analysis, reporting and overview.

New technologies are continually appearing on the horizon, such as non-destructive monitoring by use of environmental DNA (eDNA) shed in water by organisms inhabiting marine and freshwater environments. Such technologies offer significant opportunities for new insights but can be unfamiliar or experimental. To manage that challenge while maximising new opportunities for all we will foster a culture that's founded on curiosity and an openness that seeks to add to Scotland's evidence base. By making data, evidence and analysis available as far as possible, we will not only increase trust in our evidence but we will also create new sources of value for others to build on.

Infrastructure

The next strategic enabler is our infrastructure. With the loss of one of our main buildings and laboratories on our site in Aberdeen we will ensure the replacement laboratories are commensurate with the ambition set out in this strategy whilst engaging with the public sector reform underway in Scotland. Early strategic conversations are underway as we strive to have world class facilities allowing Scotland to retain its position as a world leading marine centre of excellence.

The Marine Directorate currently has two research vessels. We are committed to collaborating with partners across Scotland to ensure we are working together to meet our needs as an Island Nation with seagoing research vessels. This will mean ensuring we are fit for purpose in delivering the new strategy and the blue economy vision while ensuring our carbon footprint is minimised by exploiting new developments such as artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous vehicles. Our data capture, storage, sharing and management capability will need to match the work our vessels deliver.

We are committed to ensuring that there is equality of opportunity for colleagues whether on land or at sea onboard our vessels, particularly in leadership roles. To support this, we developed a new Scientist-in-Charge (SiC) pathway for increasing diversity, inclusion and equality in these roles. The SiC pathway focuses on a transparent and consistent approach to encourage and equip science colleagues (including those returning to work) and early career science colleagues in fulfilling the SiC on board our vessels when at sea.

Our vessels will also be critical to better understanding our Marine Natural Capital and deliver the requisite monitoring and evaluation at sea, for example once the next iteration of the National Marine Plan is complete.