The oceans are becoming a main source of resources propelling the world’s economy in the 21st Century, adding pressures to those already experienced by the ocean, such as climate change, overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution.  The growing role of the oceans as a major pillar of the world’s economy depends on the conservation of healthy ecosystems.  Solving the conundrum of maintaining healthy marine ecosystems while increasing the supply of resources from the ocean requires an intelligent use of the oceans, which is, therefore, an imperative for the 21st Century.  

The Red Sea Research Center (RSRC) at KAUST aims at furthering research and education towards providing the knowledge to conserve ecosystems by developing advanced capacities to monitor and diagnosed the status of marine ecosystem, understanding the responses of keystone habitats and species to multiple pressures and understanding the processes that allow organisms to cope with, and adapt to stress and pressures. The RSRC is developing world-class research to better understand the marine ecosystem, in particular the tropical marine ecosystems and the Red Sea. ​