Our research and teaching cover a wide variety of disciplines, including physics, climatology, chemistry, geology, biology, ecology, geography, history, archaeology, paleontology and sociology, geopolitics etc... Bringing these teams together on interdisciplinary ocean projects, developing a transversal and global vision on maritime issues, transmitting this knowledge and promoting the excellence and maritime expertise of the Alliance Sorbonne University, these are the objectives of the Ocean Institute. 

The Ocean Institute is therefore interdisciplinary. It strives to create synergies between research teams, to enrich the offer of university education but also lifelong learning, to develop expertise but also participatory science, and to consolidate the use of major scientific tools. It creates interactions with institutional and industrial partners and links with universities and comparable institutes in France and abroad. 

The components of the Alliance most involved in the creation of the Ocean Institute are Sorbonne University and the National Museum of Natural History. They have five marine stations in Dinard, Roscoff and Concarneau in Brittany, Banyuls and Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast. The Naval Academy and the French Navy were associated with the creation of the Institute.

The United Nations have proclaimed that the decade 2021-2030 will be the decade of ocean sciences. It has devoted to the oceans the 14th objective of the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development. Europe has defined an integrated maritime policy. France has strong ambitions in this area around a strategy presented in December 2019 by the President of the Republic, followed by the re-creation of a Ministry of the Sea.  

The Ocean Institute is the response of the Alliance Sorbonne University to the political ambitions and vital challenges of ocean knowledge.