indeed many of the scientific and technological advances in the pipeline are expected to have a transformational impact particularly striking are the potential innovation benefits to be reaped from combining different ocean technologies constructing multipurpose ocean platforms colocating oceanbased activities from different sectors and seeking synergies from collaboration among different ocean industries to this end initiatives are proposed to create international forums that would bring together for example maritime clusters or innovation laboratories and centres of ocean excellence to foster multisectoral and multifunctional innovation in the ocean domain