KEY POINTS
- AIMS generates and transfers knowledge to support the sustainable use and protection of the tropical marine environment through innovative, world class research.
- It is a Commonwealth statutory authority established by the Australian Institute of Marine Science Act 1972.
AIMS’ appropriation budget in 2007-08 is $26.63 M (total budget including external revenue is $38.94 M). AIMS has 162 staff (full time equivalent) nearly 60 per cent of whom are directly engaged in scientific activity.
- AIMS is a global leader in tropical marine science with strong national and international collaborative links. AIMS has highly developed capabilities in marine biodiversity and its use, impacts and adaptation to climate change, water quality and ecosystem health.
- The Institute’s research programs support the management of tropical marine environments around the globe, with an emphasis on the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, northwest Australia and Ningaloo Marine Park in Western Australia.
- Offshore oil and gas, mining, aquaculture reef tourism and fisheries have all benefited from AIMS research that is geared towards the sustainable development of key marine industries. These benefits will underwrite protection of Australia’s marine biodiversity and new areas of the economy into the future.
- The Institute contributes to future science capacity through graduate and postgraduate training. During 2006-07, AIMS scientists supervised 64 research students and 13 occupational trainees and AIMS staff held 21 adjunct appointments at universities.
- AIMS has its headquarters near Townsville in north Queensland and, together with laboratories in Perth and Darwin, supports research across Australia’s tropical marine territories.
- Highly specialised facilities, world-renowned staff and well developed partnerships have secured the Institute’s leadership in the international R&D effort. Marine science capabilities are enhanced by two research vessels, the RV Cape Ferguson and the RV Solander (launched in October 2007) which support access to ecosystems across the continental shelf and a fleet of smaller vessels which support fieldwork near-shore.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Australia is one of only a handful of “megadiverse” nations, which together contain most of the planet’s total biological diversity. Its ocean waters contain a multitude of habitats (including the largest coral reef system in the world) and forms of marine life (including more than 4,000 fish species and over 350 species of reef-building corals).
With more than seventy per cent of our territory under water, Australia is largely a marine nation. Australia’s coast and oceans contribute enormously to our identity as Australians. Our expansive ocean territory houses much of Australia’s biodiversity and hosts some of the most iconic marine life and marine habitats on earth including the Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Reef, Kimberley Coast and the oceanic shoals of the Timor Sea. Australia is the custodian of one of the largest marine jurisdictions in the world, an area more than twice that of our land mass. But more than 90 per cent of this rich resource remains unmapped and unused.
AIMS is in the top one per cent of specialist organisations, and the top one per cent of the world’s institutions conducting research in the fields of ‘environment and ecology’ and ‘animal and plant science’.
Among its many marine science achievements, AIMS has shown that corals skeletons contain information that allows researchers to construct past histories of temperature, rainfall and runoff and measure the effects of a changing climate. AIMS has also established the importance of the strong association between corals and their symbiotic algae and the role of this relationship in resilience and adaptation , a key in predicting the impact of climate change on coral reefs.
The effectiveness of the Institute’s efforts to transfer new knowledge to stakeholders was confirmed by an independent report (Marine Imprint: the crucial impact of 33 years of AIMS research in the public interest) produced by Insight Economics (August 2006). The review found that “public good focused research such as that conducted by AIMS generates dramatic regional economic benefits and, at the national level, economic benefits for Australia well in excess of its costs”.
The Institute contributes to future science capacity through graduate and postgraduate training. During 2006-07, AIMS scientists supervised 64 research students and 13 occupational trainees and AIMS staff held 21 adjunct appointments at universities.
Joint ventures, strategic alliances and significant collaborations make up the majority of the Institute’s research effort. Examples include the Western Australia Marine Science Institution, the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System, the Reef Water Quality Protection Marine Monitoring Program, the Arafura-Timor Research Facility, AIMS@JCU and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.