In order to inform decision making and policy, research to address sustainability challenges requires cross-disciplinary approaches that are co-created with a wide and inclusive diversity of disciplines and stakeholders. As the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development approaches, it is therefore timely to take stock of the global range of cross-disciplinary questions to inform the development of policies to restore and sustain ocean health. We synthesized questions from major science and policy horizon scanning exercises, identifying 89 questions with relevance for ocean policy and governance. We then scanned the broad ocean science literature to examine issues potentially missed in the horizon scans and supplemented the horizon scan outcome with 11 additional questions. This resulted in an unprioritized list of 100 general questions that would require a cross-disciplinary approach to inform policy. The questions fell into broad categories including: coastal and marine environmental change, managing ocean activities, governance for sustainable oceans, ocean value, and technological and socioeconomic innovation. Each question can be customized by ecosystem, region, scale, and socio-political context, and is intended to inspire discussions of salient cross-disciplinary research directions to direct scientific research that will inform policies. Governance and management responses to these questions will best be informed by drawing upon a diversity of natural and social sciences, local and traditional knowledge, and engagement of different sectors and stakeholders.

The ocean is highly impacted by human activities, and ambitious levels of science are urgently needed to support decision making in order to achieve sustainability. Due to the high cost and risk associated with ocean exploration and monitoring in time and space, vast areas of the oceanic social ecological system remain under-sampled or unknown. Governments have recognized that no single nation can on its own fill these scientific knowledge gaps, and this has led to a number of agreements to support international scientific collaboration and the exchange of information and capacity. This paper reviews current discussions on ocean science diplomacy, i.e., the intersection of science with international ocean affairs. Ocean science is intrinsically connected with diplomacy in supporting negotiations toward a more sustainable future. Diplomacy supports essential aspects of scientific work such as capacity building, technology and information/knowledge exchange, and access and sharing of research platforms. Ocean science diplomacy underlies the work of many intergovernmental organizations that provide scientific guidance, such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). To illustrate how critical science diplomacy is to global ocean affairs, this paper examines examples of the influence of ocean science diplomacy in UNCLOS. Furthermore, this paper discusses the utility of ocean science diplomacy in support of the UN 2030 agenda, and the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

Coastal ocean observing and modeling systems (coastal observatories), connected with regional and global ocean systems, improve the quality of information and forecasts for effective management of safe and sustainable maritime activities. The public availability of systematic and long-term information of the ocean is an engine for the Blue Economy, boosting economic growth, employment, and innovation. An overview of some Brazilian initiatives is presented in this paper, involving universities, private companies, federal and state agencies, covering institutions from south to north of Brazil. Although these initiatives focus mainly on ocean physics, integrated efforts can extend the scope to include biogeochemistry and marine biodiversity, helping to address interdisciplinary problems. Existing initiatives can be connected, and new ones fostered, to fill in the gaps of temporal and spatial coverage of ocean monitoring in the vast oceanic area under Brazilian jurisdiction (nationally referred to as the Blue Amazon, in reference to the similar richness of the Amazon Forest). The alignment among national and regional initiatives, as well as with international programs, can be promoted if coordinated by a national-level organization, maximizing the return of public investment and socioeconomic benefits. In light of international examples, possible future institutional arrangements are discussed, leveraging from existing national public policies and international cooperation that Brazil is taking part. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development is a timely opportunity to encourage an institutional arrangement to support and articulate an integrated network of coastal observatories in Brazil.