This year’s Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance (AAORIA) Forum was held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 21 and 22 November 2023. Joining other African countries represented at the forum was the CSIR-hosted Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observatory (SOCCO) research programme.

 AAORIA is the result of science diplomacy efforts involving countries from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. The event attracted representatives from the government, research community, society, private sector, non-governmental organisations and global Atlantic Ocean sectors who gathered to craft a common path that is aligned with the aspirations of the AAORIA Declaration. 

SOCCO is South Africa’s Ocean science climate programme funded by the Department of Science and Innovation, and the CSIR research group leader, Dr Sandy Thomalla, was invited to focus on highlighting the societal value of SOCCO’s role in investigating the Southern Ocean carbon-climate system. Thomalla promoted SOCCO’s capabilities and innovation activities by presenting interesting information about the 10-year-old programme’s active research projects and drew attention to its Phase IV Science and Innovation Strategy and its four priority areas. In hailing SOCCO’s successful human capital development and transformation achievements, Thomalla stated, “We are very proud of our capacity building programme at SOCCO and have been able to produce a new generation of graduates with the skills to address the challenges of the 21st century to generate a knowledge economy. We have produced 86 science students in total, with the majority, approximately 54, representing scientific fields of study, with the remainder in the electrical engineering and technological fields.”

Adding their voices as ocean scientists were CSIR researcher Thulwaneng Mashifane, and senior researcher Precious Mongwe who represented the CSIR as panellist speakers during a round table discussion. The duo offered perspectives on the future of AAORIA as youth and early career ocean professionals. Mashifane and Mongwe shared information about their impressive and diverse research work at SOCCO that is linked to two Horizon 2020 European Union research and innovation funding projects, the AtlantECO and SO-CHIC respectively; while offering an appreciation of the various instruments they make use of to collect data, to make use of new technology, to diversify sea products, and bridge practical and theoretical learning gaps.

This was all in an effort to showcase how the CSIR-hosted SOCCO programme aligns with the AAORIA Declaration priorities and illuminates  SOCCO’s value to society. The programme has also recognised a gap in South Africa’s ability to monitor the technologies that are heading its way to ocean carbon dioxide removal. To address this, Thomalla further explained, “We are looking to build a national integrated observation and modelling capability that will allow us to support robust policy development on carbon dioxide removal to evaluate the efficacy, scalability and the risks of those different technologies.”

It is expected that in the coming few years, the societal impact of AAORIA initiatives will become crucial, and thus the AAORIA Forum is dedicated to creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive ocean science community. This implies that the role of civil society, the youth and the early career professionals remained a prominent point of engagement during the event to ensure future-proofing of the AAORIA Declaration. The forum also drew attention to the impact of ocean literacy and the societal impact and value of Atlantic Ocean research.

Bringing the CSIR and SOCCO brands to life was made possible with an interactive exhibition stand for participants to engage and enquire more about its areas of research and work. And while the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021 – 2022) focuses the world’s attention on the science and partnerships needed to make the future of the ocean healthy, productive and sustainable. SOCCO’s participation at this year’s AAORIA Forum contributed to identifying, generating and using critical ocean knowledge to manage the ocean sustainably.