This area will focus on assessing outcomes of fisheries policy on food security informed by scientific evidence on climate and environmental changes, economic prospects, social change, and gender issues. A suggested area is to relate aquaculture and fisheries innovation and how this impacts coastal nutrition profiles, geographies, logistics, disaster risk reduction, fisheries stock management, economics, ecological risks such as biological invasion, and the issue of genetically modified fish (GM FISH).

This area will focus on assessing the impact of protected areas policies and legislation on impacts such as on financial sustainability of protected areas, ecological and biodiversity outcomes, community stakeholder participation, employment, and small and medium enterprise investment in communities that host protected areas.

This area focuses on the nexus between geopolitics and marine science research in the context of national priorities in developing the Blue Economy and transboundary issues. This area highlights the role of governmental science advice, non-governmental marine environment advocacy, and science diplomacy. The role of defense-related and sponsored research in informing public policy is an area that needs to be explored here. For national defense and security, the doctrine of technologically superior knowledge-gathering and storage platforms is key for securing national interests in territorial waters and the EEZ.