In a nutshell, the OCEANPLAN project was a 3-year research project that investigated how marine spatial planning (MSP) can both be affected by, and adapt to global climate change. ​​The project was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under grant agreement PTDC/CTA-AMB/30226/201, and led by an international team of scientists with expertise on both climate change and MSP.

MSP is being developed and implemented worldwide as a way to foster sustainability in ocean management and use. It deals with the spatial and temporal distribution of human uses in marine areas, striving to minimize conflicts and foster compatibilities among such uses, as well as between uses and the environment. ​On top of the many challenges MSP already faces (political, socioeconomic, environmental), in the near future it will need to deal with a changing climate. Properly incorporating climate change into the MSP framework will allow for better preparedness, improved response capacity and, ultimately, a reduced vulnerability of marine socio-ecological systems.

The project counted with the support of several institutions in the field of marine sciences. OCEANPLAN started in October 2018 and run until September 2022 (because of COVID-related limitations, the project was extended for an additional period of 12 months).