The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) is a governmental research organization operating under the supervision of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs.
The horizontal missions of HCMR are to:
- conserve the health of the hydrosphere so that aquatic ecosystems continue providing their services (i.e provisional, regulatory, aesthetic, cultural) to future generations
- promote sustainable exploitation of Marine biological and other resources, including marine energy in the frame of blue growth (HORIZON 2020)
- support the regional development
- promote sustainable aquaculture
- provide advice to national, Mediterranean and EU institutional bodies on environmental sustainability and management.
The missions of HCMR are accomplished through:
- field laboratory and experimental multidisciplinary, basic and applied, research in different scientific fields related to the physics, chemistry, geology, biology, aquaculture and fisheries of aquatic ecosystems, in the hydrosphere-atmosphere interface, the coastal zone, the water column and sea bottoms
- maintaining public aquaria and disseminating information and knowledge on major achievements through a variety of organized events
- undertaking specific pilot studies and designing management plans on specific issues
- the exploitation of products deriving from living and non-living resources either by HCMR or by contracts with third parties and supplying of various maritime and marine services
HCMR also acts as an advisor to the government on oil pollution from maritime activities and accidents, on issues shaping fisheries policy, management of water resources, and marine strategy implementation.
Its main objectives are to conduct multidisciplinary applied and basic research in the following areas:
- Structure and functioning of inland, coastal and marine ecosystems, including ecosystem modeling
- Aquatic biodiversity (at all levels)
- Integrated Marine Observing and Forecasting Systems in the Greek seas
- The role of climatic change in the evolution of aquatic ecosystems (marine and terrestrial)
- Effects of natural and human-induced pressures and hazards on the marine environment (e.g oil spills, pollution, tsunamis, floods, aquatic invasions, HABs, slumps)
- Life history of fish, fisheries dynamics, fisheries ecology, modeling, and management
- Aquaculture
- Population Genetics and Genomics of marine organisms
- Biotechnological applications
- Integrated river basin and coastal zone management
