Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Ocean Science

The Centre for Sustainable Ocean Science (SOS) provides transdisciplinary knowledge on wicked problems linked to marine biodiversity and its role in the societal transition to sustainability. SOS is an ÅAU Centre of Excellence funded by the Åbo Akademi University Foundation during 2024–2028.

As we are grappling with the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution, ocean science is acutely needed to understand the pressures on and changes to marine biodiversity, which is central to the green transition and society’s shift towards a more sustainable future. SOS delivers the science that can strengthen the consensus on policymaking options, identify solutions, and guide actions for environmental sustainability, equipping us to address the planetary biodiversity crisis.

SOS asks: When and how do human actions interact with marine biodiversity in creating wicked problems? What can be done to solve such challenges? These questions are studied in the natural marine laboratory in the Archipelago Sea and Åland Island area, as it hosts a plethora of human-nature interactions where biodiversity is at the heart of the challenges and conflicts.

SOS approaches marine wicked problems through reflexive learning in an inter-/transdisciplinary framework, utilizing the Living Lab methodology - a research concept that is often defined as a user-centered, open-innovation ecosystem that integrates concurrent research and innovation processes within a public-private-people partnership.

The work is structured around 6 workpackages. WPs 1–3 include specific case-studies of wicked problems, while WPs 4–6 draw on these, support this work and synthesise the findings. SOS works closely with and is supported by the Sea Hub network within the wider interdisciplinary research profile The Sea.