4-OCEANS

The UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES Coalition is proud to announce the formal recognition of the 4-OCEANS research project as an outstanding initiative, demonstrating and exemplifying excellence in humanities-anchored, transdisciplinary sustainability science.

BRIDGES Recognition Programme: The Mission in Practice

The Recognition Programme was established to advance the BRIDGES mission: encouraging transdisciplinary research that is inclusive of the humanities and co-produced with communities.

The BRIDGES recognised initiatives exemplify our mission to foster transdisciplinary, humanities-inclusive solutions, offering innovative approaches to building socio-ecological resilience in real-world contexts where transformation is most critical.

Each project demonstrates that we cannot solve sustainability issues without understanding the social and cultural contexts that drive them.

UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES recognition follows a rigorous evaluative process assessing alignment with UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES’ principles and UNESCO’s sustainability science approach, with particular emphasis on transdisciplinary, socially responsible, ethical and transformative practice.

Influencing Global Policy

BRIDGES recognition provides a mechanism for these initiatives to inform international policy. By highlighting these projects as exemplary models, the actionable knowledge they generate will:

Inform discussions and priorities among the Member States of the UNESCO-MOST Intergovernmental Council.
Contribute to broader multilateral contexts within the UN system, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Showcase how humanities-driven science creates meaningful social transformations.

4-OCEANS is a historical research project that explores how marine ecosystems and human societies have shaped each other over centuries, producing a global, data-rich understanding of the long-term dynamics of marine life and human development and provides critical insights for sustainable ocean management, conservation strategies and policy making.

Led by the Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities (TCD), this ambitious six-year endeavour exemplifies the BRIDGES mission to address the pressing ecological and societal challenges of our time.

A 2,000-Year Perspective on Sustainability

"How did marine life affect and alter societies of the past?" This is one of the key questions the EU-funded 4-Oceans project will seek to answer by investigating the importance of marine life for human societies. Funded by a €10.4 million European Research Council (ERC) Synergy Grant, the mission of 4-OCEANS is to conduct the first-ever global assessment of how marine life has shaped human societies over the last two millennia (100 BCE to 1860 CE).

4-OCEANS looks back twenty centuries to understand the "marine event horizons" that have defined human development. The project explores how selected socio-economic, cultural, and environmental forces, have both enabled and limited the harvest of the sea.

Global Reach and Policy Impact

The 4-OCEANS project is currently developing a World Atlas of Historical Marine Exploitation, designed to inform the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.

By illustrating our "shared ocean legacy," the researchers, led by Principal Investigators, Poul Holm and Francis Ludlow (Trinity College Dublin) James Barrett (NTNU, Trondheim) and Cristina Brito (NOVA, Lisbon), aim to shift how citizens and policymakers value marine life. The project demonstrates that the ocean has never been a static background to human history, but rather a dynamic driver of societal resilience and transformation.

The principal investigators will apply a methodology of systematic review and meta-analysis. They will ask, "what were the consequences of marine exploitation?" Ultimately, their discoveries and outputs, including the digital World Atlas of Historical Marine Exploitation, “will influence virtually every humanities-and science-based discipline touched by the sea.” They will also inform the UN Decade of Ocean Science.

The work of 4-OCEANS strengthens the global UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES network and contributes meaningfully to transformative, humanities-anchored community-led initiatives.

Transdisciplinarity in Action

4-OCEANS is built on a robust transdisciplinary framework, uniting a diverse team of experts. Bringing together expertise from marine environmental history, climate history, natural history, geography, historical ecology, genomics and zooarchaeology, to investigate the long-term consequences of marine resource exploitation, the project provides a vital historical baseline for modern ocean governance.

Environmental & Climate History: Reconstructing past oceans through "human archives" (logs, ledgers, and literature).
Genomics & Zooarchaeology: Analysing ancient DNA and fish remains to track species health and migration.
Geography & Historical Ecology: Mapping the global networks that fuelled major centres with products from distant ecosystems.

4-Oceans collaborates with partners, NASA Space Agency; Columbia University; University of Oslo; University of Texas, Arlington; and University of California, San Diego. 4-Oceans works directly with OBIS, Oceans biodiversity information system and OPI, Oceans Past Initiative. Through Trinity College Dublin, 4-OCEANS is an accredited stakeholder of UN 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference.

Sustainable Development Goals

BRIDGES recognises the importance of championing transdisciplinary initiatives that address complex, multi-faceted societal challenges in innovative ways to stimulate transformative change for the benefit of societies, people and planet.
A criteria of the BRIDGES Recognition Programme is the initiative addresses specific global, regional or local challenges encompassed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

4-OCEANS serves as an exemplary case of how bridging diverse knowledge systems can provide innovative solutions to the SDG's; attending to:

SDG 4: Quality Education

4-OCEANS drives SDG 4 by using a 2,000-year historical lens to redefine ocean literacy and sustainability science. They provide the "deep time" perspective necessary to understand human-nature dynamics, transforming historical research into active tools for global sustainability education.

Core Educational Impacts: World Atlas of Historical Marine Exploitation; Ocean Literacy; Transdisciplinary approach; Curriculum Development.

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

4-OCEANS charts historical trajectories of sustainable and unsustainable resource extraction.

Global Networks: The project uncovers how early trade networks supplied world centres with distant marine products. This research explains the origins of modern consumption and identifies historical models for resilient food security.

SDG 13: Climate Action

4-OCEANS geographers and NASA modellers fuse ocean history with predictive science to study the intersection of climate and economics.

Integrated Modelling: Findings are shared via the World Atlas of Historical Marine Exploitation, a spatial tool helping societies adapt to climate-driven ecosystem shifts.

SDG 14: Life Below Water

The project links ocean health to human cultural heritage and coastal community survival.

Cultural Stewardship: By highlighting centuries of marine-led innovation and livelihoods, 4-OCEANS embeds ocean literacy into curricula to support future food security and conservation.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

A Transdisciplinary framework bridging marine environmental, climate, and natural history with geography, historical ecology, genomics, and zooarchaeology.

Global Partners: Led by Trinity Centre for Environmental Humanities in collaboration with NASA GISS, OBIS, Columbia University, UT Austin, UC San Diego, and University of Oslo. Informed by the Oceans Past initiative.

Policy Impact: As an accredited 2025 UN Ocean Conference stakeholder, the project applies historical data to global ocean governance.

Project websites:

https://www.tcd.ie/tceh/4-oceans/

https://www.ntnu.edu/museum/4-oceans

https://cham.fcsh.unl.pt/en/projects-detail.php?p=2069

Social media:

Instagram and X @4oceanserc