The primary aim of the MCCIP is to provide a co-ordinating framework within the UK for the transfer of high-quality marine climate change impacts evidence and advice to policy advisors and decision-makers. In particular, the Partnership will act as the primary focus for the supply of evidence and advice to partners to enable them to individually and collectively plan for the challenges and opportunities presented by the impacts of climate change in the marine environment.

The key objectives for the MCCIP:

• To develop and maintain a coordinating framework for marine partners in the UK.
• To build the knowledge base and create effective mechanisms for the efficient transfer of marine climate change knowledge from the scientific community to policy advisers and decision makers.
• To facilitate uptake of tools and strategies to assist stakeholders in developing and assessing adaptation strategies.

The partnership will also help:

• To identify gaps in knowledge and recommend priority areas for research.
• To assemble community views and partner requirements for climate change tools and information (e.g. marine scenarios of climate change).
• To advise on the development of an integrated marine climate impacts monitoring programme.

Relationships with other UK marine monitoring groups

ERFF Environmental Research Funders Forum

The ERFF brings together the UK's major public sector sponsors of environmental science, aiming to make best possible use of funding.

GMES Global Monitoring for Environment and Security

GMES is the European solution to respond to the needs of citizens in Europe to access reliable information on the status of their environment.

UKMMAS UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Strategy

The overall aim of UKMMAS is to shape the UK's capability, within National and International waters, to: "provide, and respond, within a changing climate, to, the evidence required for sustainable development within a clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse marine ecosystem and within one generation to make a real difference."

MAPC Marine Assessment Policy Committee (MAPC)

At the top of the UKMMAS structure is the MAPC who own the strategy and are responsible for the policy measures needed to achieve the evolving marine objectives (MOs). The main function of MAPC is to define the policy requirements for the UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment Programme (UKMMAP) and provide direction on these matters to the Marine Assessment and Reporting Group (MARG).

MEDIN

A partnership of UK organisations committed to improving access to marine data. Our partners are both public and private sector. MEDIN sits alongside its sibling working group the Underwater Sound Forum (USF). Both groups report directly to the  Marine Science Coordination Committee (MSCC).  MEDIN are establishing a network of marine data archive centres (DACs) to provide secure long-term storage for marine data. This network will provide the capability to upload and retrieve data.

UK Marine Monitoring and Assessment:

CSSEG Clean and Safe Seas Evidence Group

CSSEG focuses particularly on the direct effect on the marine environment of chemicals and pathogens, and their likely impact on human health.

HBDSEG Healthy and Biologically Diverse Seas Evidence Group

The Healthy and Biologically Diverse Seas Evidence Group (HBDSEG) is responsible for implementing monitoring and observation programmes, covering health, biodiversity and oceanographic processes.  These programmes will facilitate the delivery of ecosystem-based assessments and management of the UK's marine environment

PSEG Productive Seas Evidence Group

The Productive Seas Evidence Group (PSEG) will ensure that appropriate monitoring programmes are in place to produce periodic assessments to identify the nature and influences that human activities have on the socio-economic uses of the marine environment.

MPG Marine Protocols Group

The role of the Marine Monitoring Protocols Co-ordination Group is to coordinate the development and implementation of standards, protocols and guidance for use across the monitoring programme. As such they link the aspects of collection, quality control and data management.

UKDMOS UK Directory of Marine Observing Systems

There is a basic requirement to know where, when and what is being monitored by the UK in the marine environment. Currently this information on monitoring programmes is not held or accessible from a central point. The UK Directory of Marine Observing Systems (UKDMOS) is a new project to overcome this current lack of information which will run until October 2007 as a special project under the Marine Environmental Data Action Group (MEDAG).

MARG Marine Assessment and Reporting Group

The purpose of MARG is to decide how best to carry out assessments to fulfil the policy requirements with existing resource and scientific knowledge, direct the implementation of suitable programmes, review the outcomes and assessments and suggest changes to the programme when necessary.

MECN Marine Environmental Change Network

The Marine Environmental Change Network (MECN) is collaboration between organisations in England, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland collecting long-term time series information for marine waters.