The overall aim of the CSA Oceans project was to provide dedicated support to JPI Oceans and its governing bodies to shorten the time required to reach its implementation phase.

With the adoption of its Integrated Maritime Policy -including its environmental and research pillars, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the European Strategy for Marine and Maritime Research- the EU has made vast strides towards ensuring an integrated, multisectorial and multidisciplinary approach, but cooperation has still not reached its full potential. The CSA Oceans project provided input to facilitate the development of a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda and an Implementation Plan according to the vision and goals of JPI Oceans.

Furthermore, CSA Oceans assessed if the governance structures of JPI Oceans needed adjustments or further elaboration and if necessary made proposals for improvements accordingly. 

CSA Oceans responded to the following objectives:

• Further elaborate and consolidate the governance structures and procedures in JPI Oceans;
• Map and analyse the marine and maritime science landscape in order to identify the gaps, overlaps and needs in four key areas: (i) Scientific gaps and overlaps; (ii) Barriers to Innovation; (iii) Science to Policy Mechanism; (iv) Observations, Infrastructures and Capacity building;
• Identify better ways of governance of EU marine and maritime research in support of the European maritime economy and related policies in particular in the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive;
• Develop a coherent Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and Implementation Plan (IPlan) on the basis of the mapping and gap analyses;
• Develop effective and efficient methods of collaboration and joint activities and actions, peer review procedures, evaluation of joint programmes, cross-border funding;
• Make proposals for cross-border activities and initiate pilot actions based on the established framework conditions;
• Design a foresight process to be used by JPI Oceans beyond the lifetime of the CSA Oceans project;
• Develop and implement communication and dissemination activities and products for the CSA Oceans project towards relevant end-users (science, industry and civil society) and the general public, in particular to increase the visibility and profile of JPI Oceans and raise awareness about the benefits and opportunities it provides.

To ensure that CSA Oceans activities supported the long-term objectives of JPI Oceans, the deliverables and proposals from the CSA Oceans project were directly embedded into the discussions and decisions to be made by JPI Oceans governance bodies.

For this reason, there was be direct interaction between the CSA Oceans consortium and JPI Oceans governance structures as represented in the figure below.