Key Points
- The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS), a Commonwealth statutory authority established by the Australian Institute of Marine Science Act 1972, is Australia’s tropical marine research agency.
- AIMS generates and transfers knowledge to support the sustainable use and protection of the tropical marine environment through innovative, world class marine research.
- AIMS is a global leader in tropical marine science with strong national and international collaborative links. AIMS has highly developed research capabilities in marine biodiversity and its use, impacts and adaptation to climate change, water quality and ecosystem health. Capabilities in marine microbiology are providing new insights into the mechanisms governing the response of marine organisms to environmental change.
- 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, Ningaloo Marine Park and the Kimberly Coast in Western Australia, and the territorial waters of northwest Australia.
- AIMS’ appropriation budget in 2010-11 is $30.88 million (total budget including external revenue is $47.4 million). AIMS had 215 people on staff (including short term appointments, as at 30th June 2010) with a full time equivalent for the year of approximately 208. Over 70 per cent of staff are directly engaged in scientific activity.
- The Australian Government is currently investing $55 million, through its Marine and Climate Super Science Initiative, to improve research infrastructure in Townsville and Darwin. A major component of this investment is the construction of a tropical oceans simulator which will enable researchers to investigate the mechanisms controlling health and resilience in tropical marine ecosystems and to better understand the complex interactions between the physical parameters of the ocean and the organisms that make up our unique marine ecosystems.
- The offshore oil and gas, mining, aquaculture, tourism and fishing industries have all benefited from AIMS research that is geared towards the sustainable development of Australia’s tropical marine resources. The results of this research will underwrite the protection of our marine biodiversity and support new areas of the economy into the future.
- AIMS is committed to supporting early career researchers. During 2009-10, AIMS supported 15 postdoctoral scientists. These postdoctoral positions are funded wholly by AIMS or by partnering with partners, including BHP-Billiton, Woodside Energy, the Queensland Government, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, and the CERF Marine Biodiversity Hub, Charles Darwin University and the University of Western Australia.
- The Institute also contributes to future science capacity through graduate and postgraduate training. During 2009-10, AIMS scientists supervised 71 postgraduate students, and 9 occupational trainees. Twenty-six AIMS staff held adjunct appointments at universities. Formal research agreements have been established with James Cook University (AIMS@JCU), the University of Western Australia, and with agencies in Darwin (Charles Darwin University), the Australian National University and the Northern Territory Government.
- AIMS has its headquarters near Townsville in north Queensland and maintains laboratories in Perth and Darwin, giving it the geographical reach to support research across Australia’s tropical marine territories.
- Highly specialised facilities, world-renowned staff and well developed partnerships have secured the Institute’s leadership in international marine research and development. Marine science capabilities are enhanced by two research vessels, RV Cape Ferguson and RV Solander, and a fleet of smaller vessels, whichprovide access to both near-shore and continental shelf ecosystems.
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 70 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, the 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. Already, marine based industries contribute significantly to our economy. In 2007-08 their value was around $48.4 billion(1) (more than the gross value of all agricultural production in the same year).
AIMS is ranked in the top one per cent of specialist organisations; is ranked second in coral reef ecology; and is in the top one per cent of the world’s institutions conducting research in the fields of environment and ecology and animal and plant science. Despite its small size, in recent worldwide rankings of more than 2000 of the best worldwide research institutions and organisations conducted by SCImago Institutions Rankings, AIMS ranked highest in the category of cites per document of "non-health institute" organisations.
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 records reaching back hundreds of years, providing a proxy record to improve climate models and an insight into the effects of climate change on the reef.. AIMS has also established the importance of the strong association between corals and their symbiotic algae and the role of this relationship plays in determining the capacity of corals to recover from, or adapt to, physiological stresses caused by climate change. New effort is being applied to understanding the role of marine microbes which dominate marine biomass and are at the frontline of response, defence, adaptation and hence mitigation of the effects of global change.
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".
Extensive co-investment in research through joint ventures, strategic alliances and major collaborations increases the capacity of the Institute to deliver high impact science both nationally and internationally. AIMS is a key partner in the Western Australia Marine Science Institution, the Marine and Tropical Sciences Research Facility, the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System (part of Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System), the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan Marine Monitoring Program, the Arafura Timor Research Facility, AIMS@JCU, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Collaborative Research Agreements have been established with the University of Western Australia, and, forming a Darwin Alliance with Charles Darwin University and the Australian National University and the Northern Territory Government. Together with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, AIMS leads the CReefs program in the International Census of Marine Life.
(1) AIMS Marine Index (2009). Available at www.aims.gov.au