International Project Office for Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR)

The Integrated Marine Biosphere Research (IMBeR) project, formerly the Integrated Marine Biogeochemistry and Ecosystem Research (IMBER) project, is a global environmental change research initiative. During its first 10 years, IMBeR advanced understanding about potential marine environmental effects of global change, and the impacts and linkages to human systems at multiple scales. To guide the next decade of research, IMBeR developed a new Science Plan with the vision of "Ocean sustainability under global change for the benefit of society." The science plan is divided into three grand challenges and four innovation challenges. The first Grand Challenge relates to developing whole system level understanding of ecosystems, including biogeochemical cycles and human interactions. One research question within this challenge asks what are the major linkages, interactions and dependencies between human and ocean systems and how are they affected by global change. The second Grand Challenge is to incorporate this understanding of the drivers and consequences of global change on marine ecosystems and human societies at multiple scales into models to project and predict future states. One research question within this challenge asks what ecological, biogeochemical and social complexity are appropriate for providing realistic projections of future states including human well-being and livelihood, and how might governance processes be included? The third Grand Challenge aims to improve communication and understanding between IMBeR science, policy and society to achieve improved governance, adaptation and mitigation of global change, and transitions towards sustainability. The Innovation Challenges are timely topics which we believe are tractable within 3-5 years and for which IMBeR is suitably placed to make a difference. The first Innovation challenge asks how metabolic diversity and evolutionary processes affect the resilience of marine organisms and their capacity to adapt to change. The second innovation challenge asks how IMBeR can contribute to the synthesis and integration of global datasets and link these to ecosystem modelling. The third innovation challenge asks how interactions between the ocean ecosystem and other components of the Earth System affect climate processes and how are these interactions affected by change. And finally, the fourth innovation challenge asks how data and information collected at different spatial and temporal scales from the social and natural sciences can be integrated, analysed and synthesised.

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IMBER was initiated by SCOR and IGBP 10 years ago to integrate globally coordinated research started in the global programs JGOFS and GLOBEC. In 2012 the IMBER IPO was moved from France to IMR Bergen, kindly supported for 5 years by the Norwegian Research Council and IMR. This period is approaching an end (April 2017), and IMBER has developed a new Science Plan and Implementation Strategy (SPIS 2016-2025) for the coming decade. In this new phase of IMBER we are focusing the research towards "ocean sustainability for the benefit of society, through better understanding and predictions of ocean responses to global change and its effects on human society". This goal is pursued through activities of national and regional research programmes, topical working groups, special focus workshops, summer schools, conferences, and collaborations with SCORE, Future Earth and other international projects, such as the Surface Ocean-Lower Atmosphere Study and Future Earth-Coast project. The new IMBER SPIS is presently in the final stage of review by Future Earth and SCOR, and the present (near final) version can be achieved from imber@imr.no. The proposed IPO consists of an Executive Officier, Deputy Executive Officier, and an Administrative/Communication Assistant. The primary activities of the IPO staff are to support existing IMBER activities, especially the raising of external funds, expand IMBER science, promote the IMBER Project, and ensure that IMBER science is recognized and incorporated into global science initiatives. The IPO will maintain the IMBER website, publish regular newsletters, and help organize IMBER activities. It will result in opportunities for new, different and exciting opportunities for the IMBER Project as well as maintaining the excellent program already underway. It will also further Norway's influence on global change research in the marine environment.8 other institutions (in Oslo, Tromsø, Bergen) have supported having the IMBER IPO in Beren.