Uniting Forces: knowledge exchange for an integral approach to Ocean Sustainability

Ocean sustainability links human survival with ecological health, the global economy, and cultural continuity. As noted in the description of Theme 1, efforts to promote this sustainability require recognition that the ocean and its problems are complex and therefore require integrated and comprehensive approaches from different knowledge and perspectives. Although this is understood by the academic community, the interdisciplinary articulations and contributions have not been easy and often end up as isolated outputs with limited scope.

As an institution of higher education, the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica (UNA) is characterized by its rigorous approach to ocean and coastal issues. We also have extensive experience in engaging coastal and island populations in addressing a range of sustainability and appropriate ocean management issues, from citizen science practices to innovative commercial uses with diverse impacts on communities and informing public policy.

Currently, UNA's work tends to a certain fragmentation, to the point where people from different disciplines working on the same issue do not know each other. This fragmentation leads to a smaller range of research outputs and impacts.

UNA’s Vice Rector's Office of Research (VrOR) has been promoting and strengthening an comprehensive vision of the marine and coastal scientific and social problems towards a sustainable ocean and social wellbeing. But inter and transdisciplinary work requires many efforts from academic management, to create capacities, seek funding or improve the exchange of results and fundamentally to achieve the collective creation of knowledge.

With this goal, the VrOR propose the following actions:

• Establish a Multidisciplinary Commission capable of bringing together experts from multiple disciplines and academic units to foster collaboration and information sharing. At the end of 2023, VrOR established a Commission with the participation of academics’ specialist in oceanography, population studies, geography, marine biodiversity, international relations and law of the sea, seismology, hydrology, social and community planification and marine ecology, that has monthly meetings and coordinate actions.
• Undertake a Comprehensive Inventory of Initiatives: Create a database of ongoing projects and research to improve visibility, capacity building and coordination. With this information the VrOR coordinated the organization of the Congress on the Integration of Knowledge for a Sustainable Ocean (CISOS24), as the academic counterpart of the High-Level Event on Ocean Action: Immersed in Change.
• Develop Concrete Proposals: Formulate actionable strategies to tackle pressing ocean-related issues, drawing on the combined expertise of our teams. One step has been the participation in the Solidarity Fund for Innovative Projects (FSPI) and the Fonds Equipe France (FEF) programmed overseen by the French Embassy in Costa Rica.
• Maximize Resources: Pooling financial human, and knowledge resources to increase the impact of our initiatives and promote a more sustainable oceanic future.
• Leverage our collective knowledge and resources to inspire meaningful change, like a book that is been prepared with the participation of multiple academics.