Marine research in the Iberian Peninsula: A pledge for better times after an ec...

• Author(s): Borja, Angel ; Marques, J. C. ; Olabarria, Celia ; Quintino, Victor
• Date: 2013
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10316/25578
• Origin: Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra
• Subject(s): Marine Research; Marine Biology; Iberian Peninsula; Scientific Productivity; Past Trends; Future Challenges
• Document Type: Article
• Language: English

Description

The “17th Iberian Symposiumof Marine Biology Studies” took place in San Sebastian (Spain), in September 2012. This contribution is an introduction to a special issue collating the most challenging papers submitted by Portuguese and Spanish scientists to the symposium. The text was structured as a novel, with the three main parts of a novel: (i) Setup: a historical context, from old times to the 1970's. This part presents the main Iberian scientific contribution to marine science, since the 15th Century, as a precedent to modern scientific research; (ii) Conflict: from the 1970's to the economic crisis. This part presents the evolution of Iberian research production, based upon a bibliometric study, from1974 to 2012; and (iii) Resolution:what for the future?,which shows the main challenges, proposed by the authors, to the European research initiative ‘Horizon 2020’, including aspects such as the need of knowledge-base for marine management, the marine research as a potential source of jobs, the ecosystem-based approach, human activities and Marine Spatial Planning, moving from fisheries to aquaculture, or global change issues, among others. This is contribution number 643 from AZTI-Tecnalia (Marine Research Division).