CORDAP’s Scoping Studies

In 2023 we launched a series of scoping studies and workshops to bring together experts from around the world to assess priority R&D investment goals in key areas to help save the world’s corals. As an outcome of these studies, CORDAP will publish Technology Roadmaps and outputs from the studies to guide national, regional, and international programs.

Four Scoping Studies have been run to date addressing the following areas:

Natural adaptation and assisted evolution of corals to climate change

Co-organized with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and hosted at KAUST, Saudi Arabia.

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CORDAP R&D Technology Roadmap

Exploring the frontier of coral aquaculture

Co-organized with KAUST Reefscape Restoration Initiative at Shushah Island, and hosted at KAUST, Saudi Arabia.

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Cold-water corals restoration and conservation

Co-organized with REV Ocean and hosted at Engineerium, Norway.

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Managing the ecological risks of coral reef interventions

Co-organized with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS).

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CORDAP R&D Technology Roadmaps

As part of CORDAP’s strategic plan, we are producing actionable roadmaps to guide future activities and investments and would be a relatively small part of the R&D investment.

R&D Technology Roadmap for Understanding Natural Adaptation and Assisted Evolution of Corals to Climate Change

This R&D Technology Roadmap – resulting from our study on assisted evolution co-organized with AIMS – sets out tangible recommendations for future investment and research, to help fill critical knowledge gaps that could assist natural adaptation and evolution of coral reefs in a warming world. Overall, the roadmap recommends investment in a mixed portfolio of R&D, ranging from technologies with lower perceived risks to those with higher percieved risks and longer R&D horizons. This strategy is advised because of the uncertainty around future heating trajectories and thus requirements for enhancement of tolerance.

CORDAP Study Fellowships

We initiated the CORDAP Study Fellowships to help address one of our core objectives of building R&D capacity in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). CORDAP will continue sponsoring places in each scoping study workshop for participants from LMICs as CORDAP Study Fellowships. These positions are an additional educational and knowledge transfer component of the workshops.

Images: © Raquel Lisboa