WELCOME TO RE:ACTION

Southampton’s significance as a city is heavily entwined with its maritime geography and history. Therefore, it should be no surprise that the University is particularly well known, world-wide, for its marine and maritime activities across our triple helix of research, knowledge exchange and enterprise and education.

These strengths are increasingly relevant, as 95 per cent of the UK’s trade is transported by sea and the oceans remain key to understanding and possibly countering the effects of climate change.

The Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute (SMMI) was created a decade ago to foster and further advance the impact of our interdisciplinary work in this area. This edition of Re:action presents some of the exciting activities fostered by SMMI, ranging from evaluating the options for carbon reduction in shipping, looking at how to promote ‘ocean literacy’ and an overview of the current status of the law of the sea.

In addition to the significance of each of these activities in terms of their own contributions, collectively they also contribute to the further strengthening of Southampton and the Solent as an internationally important Maritime Cluster. As a result, they reinforce our status as a Civic University with societal and economic relevance to our region.

I very much hope that you enjoy the articles in this edition. As always, comments and feedback are very welcome.

Best wishes

Professor Mark Spearing Vice-President (Research and Enterprise)