Working with Developing Countries

The NOC maintains and develops strong and lasting international collaborations in order to tackle the most challenging scientific questions, globally. Many of our partnerships support food and energy security, sustainable marine economies, and resilience to climate change for developing countries.

For coastal nations, the marine environment is an opportunity for economic growth (from food production, resource exploitation, tourism, and sustainable energy). The development challenges faced are the sustainability of their ocean economy, safety from hazards, and the capability of growing marine economies to adapt to future changes. In all our partner countries, coastal communities depend directly on marine sectors for food security, revenue, and employment. ​

We are currently working on 15 different projects in 22 countries, with Official Development Assistance (ODA) funding provided predominantly via National Capability (NC-ODA), the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), European Space Agency (ESA) and directly from UK Government. The primary aim of this work is to promote the economic development and welfare of our overseas partners.

Our international partnerships provide new knowledge, outcomes, and capacity building that support partner countries’ abilities to address local, national, regional and international initiatives, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG14 and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), in parallel ensuring alignment with the UK Aid Strategy, in particular to Strengthening resilience and response to crises, and Tackling extreme poverty and helping the world’s most vulnerable.