Marine innovation often sits between organisations:

• The scientific institution may have the knowledge but not the operational access.
• The commercial company may have the assets and access but not the scientific capability.
• The technology developer may have the solution but not the environment in which to prove it.
• The offshore energy company may have the commercial opportunity but require additional expertise to turn it into a meaningful environmental or scientific initiative.

The partnership is where these capabilities can meet.

But partnership does not happen simply because organisations agree to collaborate. It requires a shared purpose, complementary value, trust, appropriate governance, clear responsibilities, effective communication and continuous learning. These are the core principles of the SDG Partnership Guidebook and are highly applicable to collaboration between scientific institutions and commercial marine organisations.

Cariaco’s role is to help make that collaboration work:

• To understand the problem.
• To connect the right capabilities.
• To align different organisations around a shared purpose.
• To design the interfaces between science and commercial operations.
• To create a partnership that is fit for purpose.
• And to keep the partnership learning and adapting as the work develops.

The objective is ultimately simple:

To create more value together than either organisation could create alone.

That is the real opportunity for integrating marine science into commercial offshore operations. And it is where Cariaco can help turn good collaboration into effective partnership, and effective partnership into lasting capability.