Advancing the Blue Economy has never been more critical, in particular here in Canada. With the world’s longest coastline, our strategic investment in ocean research is essential to investigating critical global issues like climate change and biogeochemical cycles in order to secure a sustainable future for our ocean and communities. Every day, dedicated Canadian ocean scientists—from established Principal Investigators to Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs) and students—are tackling these big global issues with a mission to gather the critical data and observations needed to inform policy, management, and decision-making.

Addressing a Critical Need

For this world-class science to happen, researchers must physically get out to sea. However, the ocean research community has faced an increasing challenge in accessing the essential vessels and infrastructure needed to support fieldwork and training. This critical need for expanded and flexible access was formally identified by the National Research Vessel Task Team (NRVTT), who found that 86% of the ocean research community in Canada struggles with sea access.

MEOPAR is proactively addressing this community-identified need, recognizing that expedition science is often the only way to access critical marine environments, such as the deep ocean, under ice, or remote coastal zones. As Program Manager for Expeditions, Jonathan Kellogg, states:

Jonathan Kellogg, Program Manager for Expeditions

A Strategic Investment in Ocean Leadership

Through the Strategic Science Fund, MEOPAR launched the Expedition Fund as a core component of their new 2025-2030 Science Strategy, aligning with the Strategy’s fourth priority: strengthening “leadership in marine infrastructure access and talent development”. The fund is designed to be complementary to other funding streams, providing a vital solution that expands eligibility beyond traditional grant holders and supports multidisciplinary collaborations.

The Expedition Fund will be able to allocate $1.25 million annually to marine researchers throughout the period of MEOPAR’s new Science Strategy—more than doubling the national funding previously available to researchers for at-sea expeditions. The fund is structured around three distinct Horizons, ensuring researchers have the right support for varying project timescales and urgencies:

• Strategic Support Horizon: The core annual call, supporting multidisciplinary research and training.
• Rapid Response Horizon: Available for researchers to address urgent, time-sensitive events like oil spills, sudden storms, or geological phenomena.
• Major Expeditions Horizon: Providing larger award amounts for significant, complex, community-driven expeditions.

Notably, the funding stream supports expeditions on any seaworthy vessel. From small boats to offshore supply ships, if it floats, it can be a research vessel. This flexibility is enhanced by the potential use of Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI) that turns larger non-specialized vessels into research platforms. Importantly, the fund is also a vehicle for truth and reconciliation. Applicants are required to engage with local Indigenous communities to gain permissions for sampling and are encouraged to hire Indigenous-owned vessels, where possible. All metadata must be made publicly available on repositories, like CIOOS, with data sharing strongly encouraged to maximize public benefit.

Driving Transformative Impact and Talent Development

In addition to increasing Canadian at-sea research capacity by enabling ocean scientists to obtain critical data, validate models with real-world measurements, and advance Canada’s Blue Economy, the Expedition Fund is vital for capacity building and training. The fund is dedicated to training opportunities, and in 2025 alone supported 15 ECOPs to gain essential at-sea experience in locations around the globe.

Other notable examples of the types of the funding driving transformative impact in Canada’s ocean ecosystem include the funding provided for a test lobster fishery with an Indigenous Community in the St. Lawrence, and MEOPAR contributing to bringing Indigenous youth aboard the Indigenous-owned research vessel, the Polar Prince, for offshore training. Moreover, expedition funding has supported monitoring projects, such as deploying ocean bottom seismometers off the West Coast to detect micro-earthquakes.

Jonathan Kellogg, Program Manager for Expeditions