On 15 February 2023, the ICES Journal of Marine Science published a new study by an international team of researchers from the CNRS, the University of Exeter and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO （IOC-UNESCO） describing the first round of the Ocean Decade-endorsed Programme and its stakeholders in the co-design of marine science and measures its effectiveness.
The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development requires that all of the Actions it endorses have concrete plans to involve stakeholders in the co-creation of ocean science. The Ocean Decade has worked to ensure the centrality of co-design, co-production, and co-delivery of the ocean science that it supports and promotes. The solutions-oriented and sustainable development focus of the Ocean Decade can only be achieved if （i） the definition of ocean science that it adopts is extremely broad and considers a wide range of scientific discipline and knowledge systems, and （ii） transdisciplinarity and, more specifically, co-design and co-delivery are required elements of all Ocean Decade Actions. A recent analysis carried out by the Ocean Decade Coordination Unit identified the following benefits of co-designed and co-delivered science in Ocean Decade Actions: （i） strengthened the ability of ocean science to offer solutions of direct relevance to sustainable development that are most appropriate in specific local, national, or global contexts ; （ii） enhanced uptake of ocean science across the science-policy interface by establishing partnerships—founded in mutual trust—between generators and users of knowledge; （iii） increased visibility and support （including financial support） for ocean science; and （iv） promotion of wider stakeholder engagement in the design, generation, and use of ocean science, including the engagement of individuals, institutions, and groups that are often underrepresented.
The Ocean Decade Action Framework that guides the process for the identification of Ocean Decade Actions describes a series of criteria that are used to decide whether proposed programmes and projects are formally endorsed as Actions. To fulfil these criteria, proponents of proposed Actions are required to demonstrate the transdisciplinary nature of their initiatives, as well as the co-design and co-delivery processes that have and will be implemented throughout their work.
While the benefits of co-design are clearly recognized and central to the achievement of the vision and mission of the Ocean Decade, and while the Ocean Decade Action Framework is constructed to render co-design and co-delivery an obligatory part of the implementation of Actions, challenges and barriers to effective co-design and co-delivery persist. Such challenges include a lack of awareness of the tangible benefits and need for co-design and co-delivery, as well as previous experience with such approaches. As a result, some proponents pay only superficial attention to these concepts. Where willingness and awareness of tangible benefits do exist, the capacity to carry out co-design is often lacking, as are the needed resources （time and/or financing） or partnerships with diverse stakeholder groups. Finally, the cultural, social, and economic contexts in which co-design approaches work best differ around the globe due to the variety of challenges faced and the different social, cultural, economic, scientific, and technical contexts of each situation. This heterogeneity may impede an easy transfer of lessons from one region to another. In fact, experiences in the co-design and co-delivery of ocean science for sustainable development have rarely been documented, so there are few successful case studies or templates to guide the Actions and Programmes. To address these challenges, the Ocean Decade and its partners have launched a suite of activities to build capacity and share knowledge about co-designing ocean science for sustainable development. Ocean Decade events and publications routinely stress the benefits of co-design to wide audiences.
The process of co-designing science represents a transformation in the way that ocean research and data collection are carried out. To assess whether this transformation works and leads to better decisions, it is critical to test different approaches and collect evidence to determine whether codesigned and co-delivered science leads to better outcomes—including whether such science is more useful for decision-making and leads to better decisions than more traditional approaches. TD approaches are widely used and the process of carrying out TD research is well conceptualized. While it is tempting to measure the
success of TD research in terms of scientific output （e.g. measuring the number of papers produced）， the societal impact of TD and, thus, co-design, is often more difficult to evaluate or quantify. The Ocean Decade also gives us an opportunity to trial new ways of collecting data to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of co-design and co-delivery of ocean science. While the co-design of science is now standard in TD research, it is not familiar to many of those working in ocean science. To showcase the innovative approaches to co-design being taken by many Ocean Decade Programmes, Programme participants were invited to submit short Food for Thought articles describing their Programme’s approach to co-design and how they intend to measure its effectiveness.
The Deep Ocean Observing Systems Programme （DOOS） shared two articles describing different co-designing strategies. One article focuses on a human-centred approach to codesign data streams for deep-sea indicators off the California coast, for which the authors present a four-phase project roadmap. A second article describes how in the Azores region, DOOS and the Okeanos–University of Azores, together with other partners in the wider ocean observing community, have set out to build a “deep ocean demonstration project” that will integrate community mapping with continuous observations and numerical models while serving local stakeholder needs.
By developing a novel, bottom-up network structure with topic-based links between regions, Marine Life 2030 aims to address local problems associated with changing marine life while engaging all parties of the ocean community Similarly, FishSCORE 2030 （Fisheries Strategies for Changing Oceans and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030） plans to co-produce knowledge and provide tools via a global network to contribute solutions to climate-resilient fisheries, while implementing those tools through local and regional partnerships. The Ocean Acidification Research for Sustainability Programme （OARS） presents another approach to including local contexts within a global initiative. OARS plans to utilise the regional-hub structure set up by the Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network （GOA-ON） to develop ocean acidification science, build capacity, and tackle seven Ocean Decade Outcomes.
In contrast to the Programmes mentioned above, the Observing Air–Sea Interactions Strategy （OASIS） focuses on the physical environment at the air–sea interface. OASIS activities are organized into five transdisciplinary“Theme Teams”， to which stakeholders are actively recruited to participate; the intent is to transform how ocean observations contribute to a healthy and resilient ocean.
Original article: 中国科学院兰州文献情报中心《国际海洋科技参考》2023年第09期
References link：Co-designing marine science for the oceans we want.
