Ghent University has years of expertise and in internationally renowned for its fundamental and applied research in the field of marine and maritime sciences and technology. In 2012, Ghent University established a consortium ‘Marine@UGent’ as a knowledge cluster aiming to promote and facilitate cooperation between then approximately 70 marine research groups of the UGent Association and the Flemish Marine Institute (VLIZ). Marine@UGent member are spread over all faculties, conducting multidisciplinary research. This is not limited to obvious themes like biological sciences, aquaculture, marine biotechnology, pollution and food sciences to maritime law, marine energy and coastal and marine spatial planning and engineering sciences, but also includes expertise in health sciences, psychology, sustainability, history, etc. The objectives of Marine@UGent are the following: • To promote interfaculty and multidisciplinary cooperation between the research groups • To promote Ghent University as a top university in the field of marine and maritime research expertise • To prepare, conclude and follow up an institutional cooperation between UGent and VLIZ • To design and realize a multifunctional laboratory for UGent in Ostend • To promote valorisation of UGent marine and maritime research in collaboration with business development consortia like BLUeGhent and EnerGhentIC.