Marine Research Centre was founded in 1984 as the research arm of the then Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, to carry out key research on fisheries and other marine resources to facilitate informed decisions on their rational and sustainable utilisation.

With development of the tourism and fisheries industries, direct and indirect utilisation of the country’s natural marine resources continues to grow. The need for science-backed, cross-sectoral and ecosystems-based management of our marine resources has increased over the years.

This proposal is for the elevation of MRC to become a semiautonomous “Maldives Marine Research Institute” to better address the current marine and fisheries research needs of the country. The proposed transformation is conceived as a single agency having a research and development capacity in respect to living marine resources of the Maldives.

This proposal seeks to increase human resource capacity to address the growing research needs, and enhanced understanding of our marine resources, establish institutional administration and budget to support more efficient day-to-day administrative and logistical operations, enhance capacity for knowledge management and dissemination, and facilitate research collaborations in the fields of fisheries research, marine ecosystems research and maricultural research and development.

The Ministry also proposes to establish a complex where Fisheries, Agriculture and the proposed Marine Research Institute would be housed, to better utilise the limited land resources and to allow for better engagement with the public