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https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00729-6
OPEN
Atlantic Ocean science diplomacy in action: the
pole-to-pole All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
1234567890():,;
Andrei Polejack
1,2 ✉,
Sigi Gruber3 & Mary S. Wisz1
The ocean provides important ecosystem services to society, but its health is in crisis due to
the impacts of human activities. Ocean sustainability requires ambitious levels of scientific
evidence to support governance and management of human activities that impact the ocean.
However, due to the size, complexity and connectivity of the ocean, monitoring and data
collection presupposes high investments, and nations need to cooperate to deliver the
ambitious, costly science that is required to inform decisions. Here, we highlight the role that
ocean science diplomacy plays in facilitating the science needed to support ocean governance
and management from domestic, regional to international scales in the Atlantic region via the
All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. This Alliance is supported by the Galway Statement
(2013), the South–South Framework for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the South and
Tropical Atlantic and the Southern Oceans (2017), and the Belém Statement (2017). We
discuss the national and international interests that drove the processes of negotiating these
agreements, as well as their challenges to date. We also discuss the potential future of the All
Atlantic Alliance, as well as its significance in emerging global initiatives such as the UN
Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030).
1 Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute, World Maritime University, Malmo, Sweden. 2 Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Brasilia, Brazil. 3 European
Commission Retired Official, Brussels, Belgium. ✉email: andrei.polejack@gmail.com
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Introduction
he ocean is essential to human life. It regulates our climate
by storing carbon and heat (Cheng et al., 2020), produces
half of our oxygen (Körtzinger et al., 2004), provides food
for billions of people (Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, 2020), as well as alternative sources of energy
(Pelc and Fujita, 2002). The ocean lays mineral resources (Cuyvers et al., 2018) and hosts a rich, and yet unknown biodiversity,
which holds the potential for the development of new materials,
medicines and other products (Halvorson and Quezada, 2009).
Nearly 40% of the global population lives within 100 km of a
coastline (Small and Nicholls, 2003), and for many, the ocean is a
workplace supporting fishing, transport, shipping, and tourism.
The ocean is, however, under threat from human activities.
Examples of these threats range from climate change, overfishing
and destructive fishing, marine pollution, ocean acidification,
under water noise, habitat degradation/loss, invasive species,
eutrophication, and the cumulative impact of these and many
other pressures (Halpern et al., 2008; Rockström et al., 2009).
Human activities have changed the ocean, undermined its health
and impaired its capacity to deliver benefits to humanity (Lubchenco and Petes, 2010). For these reasons, the ocean has been
recognized as a global commons: it is in humanity’s best interest
to maintain a healthy and sustainable ocean for future generations (Vogler, 2012).
Human activities must be managed and governed in order to
maintain ocean health, resilience and function so that it will
continue to safely deliver benefits to humankind (Lubchenco and
Gaines, 2019). Such management and governance requires
ambitious levels of scientific evidence to inform decision making
(Stenseth et al., 2020; Visbeck, 2018). Science is needed to
understand the way the ocean functions and to predict the state of
the ocean. It is also needed to inform decisions about how to plan
and regulate human activities that impact the ocean. It is also
needed to establish safety and warning systems and to help
society to respond and adapt to a changing environment and
climate (Bax et al., 2018; Duarte et al., 2020).
Ocean science requires high technological capacity, equipment,
and data sharing in order to investigate the complexities of the
globally connected ocean (deYoung et al., 2019). Ocean observations and monitoring apply a multiplicity of research platforms,
ranging from moored and drifting buoys to satellite imagery,
often governed by intergovernmental coordinating mechanisms
(Tanhua et al., 2019; Todd et al., 2019). Science at this scale is
very costly, and must be coordinated over wide regions in space
and time (Miloslavich et al., 2018). Such coordination of efforts
and co-investment between Nations can be facilitated through
science diplomacy, i.e., the intersection between science and
international relations (Wagner, 2002).
Although science diplomacy is not a new practice (for a historical perspective, see Turekian, 2018; Turekian et al., 2015), the
concept is relatively new and still debated (Flink and Rüffin, 2019;
Ruffini, 2020). The taxonomy provided by The Royal Society &
AAAS (2010) frames this intersection as science in diplomacy,
i.e., scientific evidence feeding diplomatic decision making;
diplomacy for science, where diplomatic mechanisms facilitate
research and development; and science for diplomacy, where
countries build a dialog by establishing joint research endeavors.
The ocean international regime has been centered on ocean
science (Robinson, 2020). Nevertheless, ocean science diplomacy
has largely been overlooked in marine science and ocean policy
academic literature. To highlight the important role that ocean
science diplomacy has on scientific collaboration and international agreements, this paper examines the case of ocean science
diplomacy in the Atlantic. The Atlantic offers a very interesting
example of ocean sciece diplomacy for a number of reasons. First,
T
2
the Atlantic is rich in ecosystem services, and challenged by a
diversity of threats (Inniss et al., 2017). Second, The Atlantic is
bordered by a wide diversity of nations. These countries differ
significantly in culture, politics, wealth, and scientific capacity,
and must collaborate to deliver basin-scale ocean science (Brunelle, 2013). Third, several international agreements have
emerged to promote science diplomacy in the Atlantic region and
have given rise to rapidly expanding scientific collaboration
between nations.
In this paper, we will describe the All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance (the Alliance) as science diplomacy in action. First, we
present an overview on the Atlantic Ocean research landscape.
Second, we describe the three specific international science and
technology instruments that support the Alliance: the Galway
Statement (2013), the South–South Framework for Scientific and
Technical Cooperation in the South and Tropical Atlantic and the
Southern Oceans (2017) and the Belém Statement (2017). Third,
we analyze the political and scientific motivations for the adoption of the Alliance. Finally, we discuss the results achieved and
potential future outcomes of this ocean science diplomacy
endeavor.
International relations to support ocean science collaboration
in the Atlantic Region
The Atlantic Ocean Research landscape. Atlantic ocean research
is concentrated in higher latitudes (Inniss et al., 2017). Research
capacities, both in terms of marine research infrastructure as in
human capital, are concentrated in Northern countries (IOCUNESCO, 2017), as is the majority of the research fleet (Nieuwejaar et al., 2019). UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission—IOC dataset on marine experts show that
the absolute number of researchers auto-declared as Atlantic
experts is similar between the South (731 researches) and the
North (807 researchers) (IOC-UNESCO, 2017). Most of the
publications in marine science, however, come from North
America and Europe with a focus on the North Atlantic (as per
the assessment from 1996 to 2013 presented in Inniss et al., 2017).
Consequently, the South Atlantic, the region between the Equator
and the Southern Ocean at 60°S, is one of the least known, under
mapped and under sampled ocean spaces on Earth (Miloslavich
et al., 2011).
Knowledge gaps undermine the potential for societies to
properly understand and manage ecosystem services that impact
countries throughout the Atlantic (Duchez et al., 2016; Lopez
et al., 2016). Countries in the Atlantic seek to intensify research
on the interconnections and dynamics between South and North
Atlantic, by which southern countries’ research capabilities are
enhanced through the access to ocean research infrastructure,
human capacities and funding. Over the years, Atlantic-wide
scientific institutions have demonstrated an interest to cross
disciplines and establish cooperative ties between South and
North Atlantic (Mackenzie et al., 2019; Schmidt et al., 2019). Such
cooperative ties require international alliances to define priorities,
investments, and desired outcomes, such as policy-relevant
knowledge to be applied to a better management of the Atlantic
(deYoung et al., 2019). Consequently, diplomatic negotiations
were commended to strengthen ocean science in the Atlantic.
The backdrop for the establishment of the Alliance
The need for cooperation between nations on ocean research in
the Atlantic basin created an opportunity for the practice of ocean
science diplomacy. The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance is
the result of a stepwise diplomatic negotiation process with the
goal of producing knowledge-based solutions for an improved
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management of the Atlantic Ocean. The Alliance results from a
science diplomacy effort that bridged countries, aligning
research capacities, sharing costs and co-developing knowledge
for societal benefit. The European Commission triggered the
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negotiation process in 2013 involving first the US and Canada,
followed by Brazil, South Africa, Argentina and Cape Verde to
implement the internationalization of the European Atlantic
Strategy (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1 EU’s strategic framework in support of the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. This figure is covered by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. Reproduced with permission from Andrei Polejack; copyright © Andrei Polejack, all rights reserved.
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The European Union’s Integrated Maritime Policy coordinates
fragmented marine policies at the EU level and establishes sea
basin specific strategies that oversee cooperation with third
countries (European Commission, 2007). The Atlantic Maritime
Strategy (European Commission, 2011a) and its subsequent
action plans (European Commission, 2013, 2020) are the implementing arm of the Integrated Maritime Policy for the Atlantic.
This Atlantic Strategy is relevant because it gives the mandate to
the Commission to reach out for partners in the Atlantic Ocean
for further collaboration. Part of the success of the EU’s Atlantic
Strategy depends on international cooperation.
The first step in implementing the internationalization of the
Atlantic Strategy was the Galway Statement. The Galway Statement is a North-North coalition on ocean science and technology
signed between Canada, the European Union and the United
States of America in 2013. The second step was the South–South
Framework. The South–South Framework joined Brazil and
South Africa in bilateral ocean science and technology arrangements and was informed by the Commission on the outcomes of
the Galway Statement. Finally, South and North were bridged by
the signing of the Belém Statement between EU, Brazil and South
Africa, setting up an All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. The
following sections will describe the history and development of
these three agreements.
The three international Science and Technology Statements
which applied science diplomacy in the Atlantic
North–North—The Galway Statement. In 2013, the European
Union (EU), the United States of America (USA) and Canada
started a negotiation process that would trigger a North-centered
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance through an instrument called
the Galway Statement on Atlantic Cooperation (hereafter the
Galway Statement). The Galway Statement was signed as a result
of a large bottom-up consultative process with scientists, government officials and industry (European Union, Canada, and
United States of America, 2013). The Galway Statement builds
upon the bilateral Science & Technology agreements between the
EU and Canada and between the EU and the USA. The document
also highlights the relevance of the EU’s Atlantic Maritime
Strategy.
The Galway Statement’s main purpose is to “(…) increase our
knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean and its dynamic systemsincluding interlinks with the portion of the Arctic that borders
Atlantic-by aligning our ocean observation efforts to improve
ocean health and stewardship and promote the sustainable
management of its resources”.
The priorities set therein are as follows: i. to align ocean
observation efforts; ii. to improve ocean health and stewardship;
iii. the sustainable management of the resources; iv. to coordinate
data sharing and interoperability; v. seabed and benthic habitat
mapping; vi. ocean literacy; vii. researcher mobility; and viii.
harness public–private partnerships. By doing so, the expected
outcomes were: better ecosystem assessments and forecasts;
deeper understanding of vulnerabilities and risk (specially climate
related); and new tools to increase resilience, conserve rich
biodiversity, manage risk and determine social, environmental
and economic priorities (European Union et al., 2013).
A Trilateral Galway Statement Implementation Committee was
established in 2013 to oversee the work needed to achieve this
Statement’s goals. The institutions that lead this Committee are
the European Commission’s Directorate General on Research &
Innovation, the USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and Canada’s Department of Fisheries and
Oceans.
4
The European Commission launched a series of calls for
proposals in 2014 in support of the implementation of the Galway
Statement through the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for
Research and Innovation (European Commission, 2017b, 2019).
Proposals involved not only research projects, but also the
interesting mechanism of the Coordination and Support Actions
—CSA. The CSAs are intended to accompany measures such as
standardization, dissemination, awareness-raising and communication, networking, and coordination or support services. CSAs
also support policy dialogs and mutual learning exercises/studies,
aiding activities of strategic planning, networking and coordination between programs in different countries. As such, CSAs
function as support mechanisms for policy, bridging Academia,
Government, Civil Society and Industry in and out Europe.
One Coordination and Support Action was funded to support
the implementation of the Galway Statement: the Atlantic Ocean
Research Alliance Coordination and Support Action, or AORACSA1. This CSA, due in 2020, was coordinated by the Marine
Institute Ireland and involved a consortium spread across key
marine organizations in Europe. AORAC-SA overall objectives
were to improve the international cooperation framework under
the Galway Statement and to create a foundation for the
development of large scale joint international marine research
programs. AORAC-SA established a High-Level Advisory Board
to follow the implementation of the project and make further
recommendations and guidance. The High-Level Advisory Board
was composed of representatives from the three signatories plus
representatives from Brazil and South Africa. AORAC-SA was
meant to support the implementation of the Galway Statement
and thus lacked research institutions from Brazil and South
Africa in the consortium. The participation of Brazil and South
Africa in this board was important to exchange relevant
information on actions in the South and in the North. The
High-Level Advisory Board acted at the CSA level, advising the
Trilateral Galway Statement Implementation Committee. This
Implementation Committee, composed by the three signatory
parties, was responsible to guide, propose and implement
concrete actions to the Galway Statement.
The Trilateral Galway Statement Implementation Committee
established working groups to operationalize the political
commitments taken by the cosignatories of the Galway Statement
on specific areas of common interest. These working groups were:
Ocean Literacy; Aquaculture; Ecosystem Approach to Ocean
Health and Stressors; and Seabed Mapping. The Committee
decided not to create a specific group for ocean observations
because the AtlantOS project (Optimizing and Enhancing the
Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing Systems), as we will address
in detail further, was mandated to coordinate observational
systems in the Atlantic. The working group on Seabed Mapping
was responsible for coordinating the North Atlantic seafloor
mapping. This coordination included ship time and equipment
sharing that has proven to be effective (AORA, 2018; Raineault
and Flanders, 2019). The findings of the seafloor-mapping
working group resulted in a special issue of the research journal
Frontiers in Marine Science2.
The European Commission first negotiated the terms of the
Galway Statement bilaterally, by establishing specific ocean
working groups in each of the existing bilateral science and
technology agreements with the US and Canada. The Commission used this strategy to establish strong diplomatic and political
grounds tied to the bilateral formal agreements. As a consequence, the bilateral working groups resulted immediately into
trilateral working groups after the signing of the Galway
Statement. The Commission applied similar strategy southwards
in the Atlantic, as we will present further.
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South–South: the Framework. In 2013, the same year the Galway Statement was signed, the EU-Brazil Joint Steering Committee on Science and Technology decided to create a Working
Group on Ocean Science and Technology. Co-chairs from both
the European Commission and the Brazilian Ministry of Science,
Technology and Innovations were assigned to coordinate this
work. As a result, a bilateral ocean-specific agreement was signed
in 2015 (European Union and Brazil, 2015). Similar process
occurred in South Africa, with a resulting agreement in 2016
(European Union and South Africa, 2016).
Brazil and South Africa had closely followed the developments
under the Galway Statement both because of the bilateral
negotiations with the European Commission and their participation in the advisory board of the AORAC-SA. Both Southern
countries realized the benefit arising from such a coordination
and resolved to develop a similar process in the South Atlantic.
As a result, a South–South scientific agenda was crafted for the
South Atlantic and Southern Ocean. The initial partners in this
discussion included Academics and government officials from
Argentina, Namibia, Angola and Uruguay. Brazil and South
Africa decided to extend the invitation to the European
Commission and European researchers involved in projects in
the South Atlantic. The South–South Framework for Scientific
and Technical Cooperation in the South and Tropical Atlantic
and Southern Oceans was developed after a series of two technical
seminars that were financially supported by the European
Commission (Brazil and South Africa, 2017). The Framework is
centered in the inputs from the South Atlantic community,
including the views from those Northern researches who work
cooperatively with the South (Claassen et al., 2019).
The South–South Framework is a bilaterally agreed plan for
scientific cooperation in oceanic research between South Africa
and Brazil. The process of negotiating the Framework included
inputs from Argentina, Angola, Namibia, and Uruguay. The final
document was adopted only by Brazil and South Africa because
internal political processes prevented the other countries to adopt
it immediately. Thus, the Framework is open to all countries in
the region and is intended to promote scientific cooperation and
capacity building among South Atlantic countries. The Framework promotes the exchange of expertize and knowledge of ocean
science and technology for the environmental and socioeconomic benefits of countries in the region.
The priorities defined in the South–South Framework include
three broad themes that are followed by a more detailed program.
The priorities are: i. Climate Variability and Change; ii.
Ecosystem Variability and Controlling Processes; and iii. Living
and Nonliving resources, and biodiversity. Three cross-cutting
areas were identified: human capital development; development
and deployment of various platforms for data collection; and
collaboration on relevant aspects of big data.
The South–South Framework goes beyond the typical research
cooperation to aim also in contributing to the greater economic,
political and diplomatic alignment of South Atlantic nations. The
document ambitions the development of common and joint
imperatives for the South and Tropical Atlantic and the Southern
Oceans. The Framework also states the intention to position
South Atlantic Ocean countries as global focal points leading joint
and individual observational and research endeavors in the South
Atlantic.
The will to align the South–South with the Galway Statement
can be seen in at least two statements present in the Framework.
“Ultimately, it is hoped that the Framework will guide not only
South–South, but also South–North scientific cooperation (p. 2)”.
Also, “(the Framework) is intended to address and build-on
current collaborative research programs between Southern countries, and in alignment with Northern countries, with the aim of
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developing basin scale ocean science and technology development,
enhancing human capacity, strengthening ongoing projects, and
identifying potential activities and opportunities for further
development within this cooperation (p. 9)”.
South–North: the Belém Statement. The South–South Framework, through its organization of the Southern nations, was an
important pre-requisite toward the development of a basin-scale
Atlantic scientific cooperation. Upon the establishment of the
South–South Framework, the European Commission, Brazil and
South Africa organized a series of seminars to propose a new
instrument to establish the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance.
This instrument is the Belém Statement.
The Belém Statement on Atlantic Research and Innovation
Cooperation (European Union, South Africa, and Brazil, 2017)
was signed in the Belém Tower of Lisbon in 2017. The Statement
main purpose is to improve the collaborative scientific efforts in
the Atlantic Ocean and sustainably cooperate on marine science,
research and innovation. The Belém Statement highlights the
mutual benefit on linking research activities in the South Atlantic
and Southern Ocean with those in the North Atlantic. Moreover,
the Belém Statement aims to leverage from already existent
endeavors, such as the Benguela Current Commission.
The Belém Statement is based on the principles of shared
responsibility and mutual benefit. The aims of the Statement are
to: promote and facilitate human capital development and
scientific exchange; provide a platform and opportunities for
scientific and technological cooperation resulting in joint
activities; and, encourage new models for cooperation on a
coordinated and partnership-based approach to tackle the
scientific and societal challenges of the Atlantic Ocean. The
Statement connects oceans and climate change, oceans and food,
and oceans and energy systems, as well as the dynamics of the
Atlantic Ocean and its interconnected circulation systems from
Antarctica to the Arctic, representing a pole to pole research
effort.
The priority areas set in the Belém Statement are aligned with
those decided in the documents forging the North-North and the
South–South cooperation (Table 1). The common areas of
interest are: 1. Climate variability and ecosystem approaches; 2.
Ocean observation (including seabed mapping), forecasting and
monitoring processes and systems; 3. Food security, fisheries
management, aquaculture and biodiversity; 4. Oceans technology
(including for observation and renewable marine energy); 5. The
effects of emerging pollutants; and, 6. Polar research (especially
interconnections between the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and
Antarctica).
The proposed outcomes of the Belém Statement include: better
monitoring and forecasting capacities; improved safety at sea,
human health and well-being; sustainable use of marine
resources; new and emerging technologies to service societal
needs and new value chains; and, ocean-engaged citizens through
enhanced ocean literacy activities.
The European Commission allocated funding of approximately
64 million euros in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme to
implement the Belém Statement, more precisely under the Blue
Growth calls for proposals (European Commission, 2017a). A
Coordination and Support Action (CSA) was also funded to
support the implementation of the Belém Statement, similar to
what was done for the Galway Statement. The All Atlantic
Cooperation for Ocean Research and Innovation Coordination and
Support Action–AANCHOR CSA aims to support the international cooperation between Europe and South Atlantic countries.
AANCHOR also seeks the connection with the different ongoing
initiatives and projects in the North Atlantic beyond Europe.
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Table 1 Comparison among the priority areas defined by each of the negotiation processes of the three Atlantic international
arrangements on ocean research and development (STI: Science, Technology, and Innovation).
STI priority areas
Ocean observation (including seabed mapping), forecasting
and monitoring processes and systems
Ocean health, including pollutants
Sustainable management of the resources
Data sharing and interoperability
Seabed and benthic habitat mapping
Ocean Literacy
Climate Variability and Change
Ecosystem Variability and Controlling Processes
Nonliving resources
Biodiversity
Food security, fisheries management & aquaculture
Oceans technology (including for observation and
renewable marine energy)
Polar research (especially interconnections between the
Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica)
Earth system model
Inter-ocean exchanges and large scale circulation
Air-sea exchanges and storage
Paleo evolution
Biological production and biogeochemistry
Continent-Shelf-Ocean continuum
Surface Ocean-Deep Ocean links
Marine biotechnology
Cross-cutting areas
Researcher mobility
Public–private partnerships
Human capital development
Sharing of research infrastructures
Galway Statement (2013)
South–South
Framework (2017)
Belém Statement (2017)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
AANCHOR differs from its North Atlantic sister project, the
AORA-CSA, on including institutions from Latin America and
Africa as part of the consortium. A High-Level Board was
established to guide AANCHOR. Membership include each of
the three signatories plus representatives from the USA,
Canada, Argentina and Cape Verde. The High-Level Board
in the Belém Statement is similar to the one set up for the
Galway Statement in the sense of including partners that are
not signatories to the Statement. In fact, Argentina and Cape
Verde were included in AANCHOR just after signing bilateral
science and technology implementing arrangements for ocean
research with the European Commission (European Commission and Argentina, 2018; European Commission and Cabo
Verde, 2018). The High-Level Board acts at the CSA level. The
implementation of the Belém Statement at a higher political
level is done by a trilateral committee composed by the three
cosignatories, similar to what was done for the Galway
Statement.
AANCHOR assembles experts from around the Atlantic in
multi-stakeholder platforms to identify collaborative activities.
There are currently five platforms acting as think tanks under
AANCHOR. These platforms are: 1. reinforcing capacity
building; 2. promoting academia-industry knowledge transfer; 3.
developing common standards (including data); 4. enhancing
citizen awareness and ocean literacy; 5. converging and aligning
R&I infrastructure initiatives. These multi-stakeholder platforms
are expected to define long term measures for the cooperation
framework of the Belém Statement, beyond the project’s lifetime.
Part of the scope of the Belém Statement is about capacity
development, particularly for younger generations. The All
6
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Atlantic Ocean Youth Ambassadors program was a response to
that objective. The program targets young ocean leaders who are
required to promote ocean literacy, outreach and communication
strategies. Ambassadors should act both in local community
engagement as well as in regional/global communities, advancing
their role as early career science diplomats. The first Ambassadors’ training happened in 2019 with participants from
Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, Europe (several countries), South Africa and the USA (AORA and AANCHOR,
2019b). Recently, the European Commissioner for Innovation,
Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel officially
launched the program3 and announced a second round of
training, planned for 20214.
The Belém Statement implementation is underway with
ongoing efforts in research and engagement. As the Belém
Statement implementation progresses, interest in the region
arises. For example, the European Commission and the Kingdom
of Morocco signed in December 2020 an administrative
arrangement on marine research and innovation, which highlights the work undergoing in the Belém Statement5. Moreover,
the African Union has shown interest in the capacity development component. In general, these statements of interests are
done at the All Atlantic Forum, an event that has gathered this
new Atlantic community to discuss common issues of concern.
The Forum happens once a year and have started in Brazil,
followed by one edition in Europe and, in 2020, in South Africa6.
Hopefully, this Alliance will also attract other international
initiatives and donors, such as philanthropy, private agents, and
NGOs. It will be interesting to follow how impactful this Alliance
will be in the future.
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Discussion
The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance as an example of
science diplomacy. The process of adopting and creating the All
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance can be framed in the taxonomy
proposed by The Royal Society and AAAS (2010). First, it is an
example of “science in diplomacy” because scientific advice supported the process of the three above-described international
instruments, identifying priority areas and targeted countries.
Second, it is an example of “diplomacy for science” since the
official documents supporting the Alliance, i.e., bilateral and
multilateral agreements, foster research projects and access to
infrastructure. Finally, it is an example of “science for diplomacy”
because the science-based dialog is bridging countries in the
Atlantic around the common goal of societal benefit. This dialog is
set in both the existing diplomatic instruments, as well as in the
funded research projects.
Science diplomacy addresses goals shaped by (i) national
interests and needs; (ii) cross-border interests; and (iii) global
needs (Gluckman et al., 2018). The All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance uses science diplomacy to address goals shaped by similar
interests. First, the Alliance was triggered by national interests, in
particular the Commission’s interests in internationalizing its
Atlantic Strategy. Second, the stepwise process of implementing the
Alliance covers cross-border interests ranging from North–North
and South–South coalitions to a whole basin coordination. Lastly,
the aims of the Alliance cover global ocean community interests.
Europe’s early role in science diplomacy strategies in the
Atlantic. In 2011, the Directorate-General for Research and
Innovation of the European Commission, promoted the event
“The Atlantic Geopolitical Space: common opportunities and
challenges”, discussing the Atlantic values to economy and trade,
to energy provision and security (European Commission, 2011b).
The report of this event highlighted the Atlantic as of major
importance to Europe and recommends that alliances are built, by
which scientific cooperation should be both a pillar and a facilitator (European Commission, 2011b). The EU’s Atlantic Strategy
was launched in 2011, stressing scientific cooperation. The
Atlantic Strategy offered the political mandate for the European
Commission to explore alliances as part of the Strategy’s internationalization component. This political context facilitated the
signing of the Galway Statement and the bilateral agreements
with Brazil and South Africa 2 years later, triggering the process
of building up the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. Europe’s
initiation of a basin-scale ocean science diplomacy endeavor
could help to inspire similar initiatives in other basins.
In the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, bilateralism
provided the backbone for multilateral science diplomacy. The
European Commission used bilateral formal agreements on ocean
science and technology with each partner country to progressively
build the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. These bilateral
agreements included first the US (2012) and Canada (2012),
second Brazil (2015) and South Africa (2016) and more recently
Argentina (2018), Cape Verde (2018) and the Kingdom of
Morocco (2020). This strategy allowed the Commission to
establish commitments and compliance from each partnering
country when progressing to a multilateral setting. Bilateral
science and technology agreements were reported to be useful in
promoting science diplomacy (Dolan, 2012).
According to Ruffini (2020), science diplomacy is fueled by
national interests. The three science diplomacy instruments in the
All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance support multi-national
collaboration on scientific research and potentially also the
national interests of the countries involved. For example, the
European Commission has been very successful in pushing
ARTICLE
forward its views, strategies and policies at the international
arena, utilizing science diplomacy tools to pursue its goals in the
Atlantic (European Union, 2019; López de San Román and
Schunz, 2018). European interests in the Atlantic go beyond than
acquiring evidence on essential natural assets (European Union,
2020). The Atlantic is an essential part of Europe’s Blue Growth
agenda to generate jobs and advance industrial development and
recovery through ocean and coastal innovation (European
Commission, 2013). The Atlantic is also essential to the new
European Green Deal in terms of renewable sources of energy
and technology developments for food provision and other ocean
services (European Commision, 2019).
The Southern interests in the All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance. Southern Countries, in particular Brazil and South
Africa, have had a long running history of scientific cooperation
in ocean science that precedes the All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance.
Since 2005, Brazil and South Africa are both part in the IBAS
(India, Brazil, and South Africa) dialog on ocean science
(Arkhangelskaya, 2010) and more recently, in 2017, in the BRICS
(Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) working group for
ocean and polar sciences7. Moreover, Brazil and South Africa
have shared an ocean observing system in the South Atlantic
since 2010 as a result of the engagement in multilateral ocean
science endeavors (Ansorge et al., 2014). These activities allowed
ocean science communities from Brazil and South Africa to
interact overtime, and to define research priorities and gaps. As a
result, researchers from both countries informed the negotiation
of the South–South Framework and ultimately the Belém
Statement.
By the means of the South–South Framework, Southern
nations were able to coordinate their national interests and
exercise this power with the North, influencing the Atlantic
research agenda and further investments. On the signing event of
the Belém Statement, the then Commissioner for Research and
Innovation, Carlos Moedas announced a political and financial
commitment to promote joint research projects under the
implementation of the Belém Statement. This was further
promoted and consolidated through the Horizon 2020’s Blue
Growth calls for research proposals. Proposals in these calls were
encouraged to partner with institutions from Brazil and South
Africa. This was particularly important for Brazilian researchers
because of the current national science budget crisis (Angelo,
2017, 2019; Rodríguez Mega, 2019). Therefore, access to research
funding can be seen as national interests to Brazil and South
Africa.
The South–South Framework highlights the willingness of
Brazil and South Africa to align their national interests and build
regional, science-based coalitions aimed at influencing global
ocean agendas. The Framework makes explicit reference to the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the
Convention on Biodiversity, the goals of the Food and
Agricultural Organization and the International Whaling
Commission.
South–South cooperation in this space would address highprofile scientific questions that could provide relevant
information to address national priorities as well as lead to
opportunities to play an active role in the global sphere
(Brazil and South Africa, 2017).
The Alliance’s impact in addressing global interests. The
Atlantic Ocean is of critical importance to the global ocean and
climate dynamics. The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
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contributes to the global ocean knowledge by intensifying
research in the Atlantic. One of the main goals of the Alliance is
to generate knowledge for social benefit. It is a global community
interest to promote an improved ocean governance through the
application of the scientific knowledge in decision making (Wisz
et al., 2020). The upcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for
Sustainable Development shall be a good opportunity for the All
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance to contribute with research to
address global ocean concerns (Claudet et al., 2019).
The Decade of Ocean Science was approved by the UN General
Assembly in 2017. UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic
Commission (IOC) was mandated to prepare an implementation
plan in consultation with Member States, UN partners and other
relevant stakeholders for the 2021–2030 period (United Nations,
2017). IOC has then prepared a Decade’s roadmap as an initial
guide for the steps and processes needed to develop the requested
plan (IOC-UNESCO, 2018; Ryabinin et al., 2019). In this roadmap,
international cooperation is urged. Although not explicitly stated,
science diplomacy seems essential to implement this Decade.
It is hoped that coordinated region-wide efforts, such as the
Belém Statement, will facilitate the implementation of the Decade
of Ocean Science. Efforts are currently underway to identify how
the Belém Statement’s implementation will contribute to the
Decade (AORA and AANCHOR, 2019a). In addition, the North
Atlantic and South Atlantic Ocean Decade planning workshops
were coordinated to align with the work of the All Atlantic Ocean
Research Alliance. The Decade of Ocean Science and the Galway
and Belém Statements will interact promoting science diplomacy
in the Atlantic. It is so far unclear which drivers will guide this
interaction, such as governance issues (top-down) or scientifictechnical criteria (bottom-up) or a combination of both.
As the Decade of Ocean Science is intended to support
sustainable development, the science must support societal needs.
Both the Decade and the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
aim to address societal needs by making scientific information
relevant, useful and accessible (Ryabinin et al., 2019). The
Alliance has put mechanisms in place for public engagement that
can be leveraged by the Decade of Ocean Science implementing
process. It will be interesting to monitor how countries will
incorporate scientific results from the All Atlantic Ocean
Research Alliance into their national strategies, which in turn
shall support the implementation of the Decade of Ocean Science.
So far, the Alliance is a valuable vehicle to bring people together,
work on commonly identified challenges and ensure that results of
this cooperation will deliver what coastal communities need in
terms of scientific output and translated tools. Thus, there is an
added value of ongoing cooperation as a model to inspire others
within the wider context of the Decade of Ocean Science.
The future of the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. Some of
the Galway projects such as AtlantOS (Optimizing and Enhancing the Integrated Atlantic Ocean Observing Systems) resulted
in an important basin-scale coordination of ocean observatories.
There is a proposal that AtlantOS continue as a new program
connected to IOC’s Global Ocean Observing System–GOOS
(deYoung et al., 2019). There is a clear link between the new
AtlantOS program and the objectives of the Belém Statement,
which indicates a future integration towards users’ needs and
societal benefit (Fritz, 2016). Science diplomacy will be at stage in
promoting the means to facilitate research, ranging from national
budgets to an international basin-wide collaboration, as well as
absorbing the data and results that can feed back into national
policies on ocean forecast and monitoring.
A new set of research projects have been funded by the
Horizon 2020 Programme in support of the implementation of
8
the Belém Statement and beyond. These research projects will act
in large geographical areas, covering the whole Atlantic basin. For
example, the Mission Atlantic project aims to conduct integrated
ecosystem assessments in the Atlantic basin, a challenge in
addressing environmental concerns and commercial activities.
Integrated ecosystem assessment is a tool to support the
ecosystem-based management by applying an Integrated Ecosystem Approach—IEA (Levin et al., 2009). IEA is the comprehensive integrated management of human activities based on the best
available scientific knowledge about the ecosystem, and its
dynamics, in order to identify and take action that will support
ecosystem health, integrity and sustainability (Smith and Maltby,
2003; UNEP, 2009). A legitimate IEA needs to address different
scales (e.g., local, to regional, to basin to global) to better
understand the intrinsic relations between different systems
(Levin et al., 2009). Ocean science diplomacy can facilitate the
work of Mission Atlantic by identifying options to internationally
bridge the science needed to support decision making. Mission
Atlantic will need to consider the regulatory diversity in the
Atlantic and develop practical ways to feed scientific evidence
into ocean management in diverse settings. Its IEA framework
will help give stakeholders a practical view on how research
projects under the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance can
impact the relations between the countries and provide the
relevant knowledge for better decision making.
The new Research and Innovation Program of the European
Union, Horizon Europe, will incorporate research and innovation
missions to increase the effectiveness of funding by pursuing
clearly defined targets (Mazzucato, 2018). One of the five target
missions is on healthy oceans, seas, coastal and inland waters. The
recently proposed Mission Starfish 2030 establishes several
priorities for ocean research that are very much aligned with
the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (Lamy et al., 2020).
Mission Starfish 2030 also posits international cooperation as part
of the desired outcomes and makes explicit reference to the All
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance as an action to be supported.
The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance’s Youth Ambassadors pilot program has called the attention of different countries,
showcasing the Atlantic science diplomacy through ocean literacy
and citizen engagement. In only six months of campaigns, the
Ambassadors have reached and promoted the Belém and Galway
Statements in >100 events. It is proving to be effective in
promoting the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance and in
fulfilling Belém’s mandate on better engaged citizens. The
program should now be broaden to other donors and countries
in the region, so the Ambassadors would mainstream ocean
science diplomacy throughout the Atlantic.
Finally, there is a potential for the All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance to serve as a model for other ocean basins. If that shall be
the case, ocean science diplomacy practices will have to adapt to
different regions’ realities and lessons can be learned from the All
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance.
Conclusion
This article presents a case of ocean science diplomacy in action in
establishing an All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. The All
Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance has emerged from three agreements between different Atlantic bordering countries (the Galway
Statement, the South–South Framework, and the Belém Statement).
These agreements and the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance have
triggered EU funding calls, new research projects (e.g., AtlantOs,
AANCHOR, and now Mission Atlantic). These projects have bolstered scientific collaboration, scientific exchange and capacity
building through the Atlantic in the generation and sharing of new
scientific data, knowledge, forecasting and early warning/decision
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support tools. Moreover, the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
has already contributed to a diversity of other EU’s strategies.
Examples include the Blue Growth Strategy, the European Green
Deal, and the EU Science, Research and Innovation Policies.
Science informed the diplomatic negotiations of these agreements on priorities and actions needed to provide society with
relevant knowledge. Moreover, European Commission played an
important role in triggering the negotiation process, motivated by
the implementation of the European Union’s Atlantic Maritime
Strategy, and in particular its international dimension. The process of creating the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance resulted
in a balance between national/European and ocean community
interests. On one hand, we presented European Commission
interests in implementing its Atlantic Maritime Strategy. On the
other, we discussed the interests of Brazil and South Africa in
advancing national gaps in ocean research. The main goal of the
All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance is to develop science to
serve global community interests regarding ocean sustainability.
Science diplomacy was applied as a tool to balance national
interests and broader ocean community interests in the case of
the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance.
We highlighted the pro-active role that the European Commission played in the Atlantic science diplomacy. The European
Commission was very effective at overcoming challenges presented
by its multi-level governance, and diverse internal differences within
member states (Flink and Schreiterer, 2010; Rüffin, 2020). The
Commission based the construction of this Alliance on the existing
bilateral agreements with each of the involved countries to support a
multilateral alliance. In so doing, ocean science diplomacy was used
by the European Commission via the All Atlantic Ocean Research
Alliance to achieve political reach in the Atlantic.
The results from the Alliance will both provide scientific evidence
in support of national decision making, as well as contribute to
international debates on the global ocean environment. The
upcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) is an opportunity for the Alliance to inspire the
development of global ocean affairs. Through this example, the
Alliance can both provide its experience coordinating a basin-wide
mechanism between countries for the generation and sharing of
ocean science, as well as by making more scientific evidence, tools,
and expertize available.
The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance bridges countries
around common interests, facilitating research and evidencebased dialog that fuels and supports additional international
research collaboration. The All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
exemplifies the need to collectively develop research, human
capacity, technology employment and cost sharing mechanisms
to better address mutual responsibilities over an ocean basin of
utmost importance. A major remaining challenge for this Atlantic
Ocean science diplomacy is to ensure the co-creation of policyrelevant science that will support society in the most effective way
through an inclusive diversity of disciplines and stakeholders.
Data availability
No primary data were generated or analyzed for this paper.
Received: 19 June 2020; Accepted: 5 February 2021;
Notes
1 https://www.atlanticresource.org/aora.
2 The Special Issue can be found at: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/8873/
seafloor-mapping-of-the-atlantic-ocean.
3 https://sway.office.com/8hFw3qpVFwA2o8kD?ref=Link&loc=play.
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4 https://allatlanticocean.org/view/news/launch-of-the-selection-process-of-the-newcohort-of-all-atlantic-ocean-youth-ambassadors-.
5 https://ec.europa.eu/info/news/commissioner-gabriel-signs-administrativearrangement-marine-research-and-innovation-kingdom-morocco-2020-dec-08_en.
6 https://allatlanticocean.org/view/events/all-atlantic-ocean-research-forum.
7 http://land-ocean.ru/brics/.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Ronán Long for the review of the draft manuscript. AP thanks the
Global Ocean Institute, from the World Maritime University. AP is supported by the
ARTICLE
Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management—SWAM, and the German Ministry
of Transport and Digital Infrastructure through the Land-to-Ocean Leadership Program
and by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations. This article is
delivered under the MISSION ATLANTIC project funded by the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement No. 639 862428.
This paper reflects only the authors’ views. The European Commission and the Brazilian
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation are not responsible for any use that may
be made of the information it contains.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
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