A teaspoon of seawater is likely to contain 10,000 very small plants and animals, 1 million bacteria and 100 million viruses. The overwhelming majority are completely harmless to humans.

The Marine Science Co-ordination Committee (MSCC) is composed of senior representatives of the major marine science funding Departments, the Devolved Administrations, the key marine science providers and four independent members.  Established in 2008, in response to a House of Commons Science and Technology Committee Report, ‘Investigating the Oceans’, it reports directly to a group of Ministers, chaired by the UK Marine Science Minister. It is the successor body to the Inter-Agency Committee on Marine Science and Technology (IACMST).

The MSCC has two main responsibilities: to deliver the UK Marine Science Strategy; and to improve UK marine science co-ordination. The MSCC published the first UK Marine Science Strategy in February 2010.  It is a 15 year Strategy and was developed with significant input from the UK marine science community.  It sets the general direction of travel for future marine science across the UK for the period 2010 to 2025.

In  order to save public money, the MSCC webpages are hosted on one of its members’ sites – Defra.

Latest news

• Latest newsletter on MSCC activities released
• The Sharing facilities and equipment table is now live.