As part of an 8 million euro project funded by the European Union, researchers from the University of Porto's Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) are working to preserve and restore marine biodiversity in the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. The initiative, called BioProtect, intends to address the urgent threats that climate change and human activity pose to marine ecosystems.

With an emphasis on various marine ecosystems, scientists will create "innovative, adjustable, and scalable solutions" for the following four years. Researchers will take into account a number of scenarios, including those involving climate changes, methods for protection and exploitation, and the effects on the environment and society. Involving the public and policymakers will enable them to safeguard and restore biodiversity and marine ecosystems.

In line with the 2030 European Union goals and the European Ecological Pact, the project is led by the Icelandic research institute Matís and involves eighteen partners from eight different countries, five of which are Portuguese institutions. In order to support the development of management policies for the sustainable use of the oceans and the preservation of climate refuge zones, the project will also investigate the cumulative effects of fishing, marine litter pollution, and climate change through aquarium experimentation and the identification of areas most susceptible to these impacts.

Researchers from the University of Aveiro, Institute of Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology, and Science (INESC TEC), Okeanos from the University of the Azores, and AIR Centre are also involved in the project in addition to CIIMAR. As stated by Sophie Jensen, the coordinator of BioProtect, the goal of the project is to “respond to the urgent need for global and sustainable solutions to mitigate the effects of human-induced pressures and climate change on marine ecosystems”.