We’re excited to share that Revive & Restore’s newest program, Climate Resilience Fund, has been selected for endorsement as an official UN Ocean Decade Contribution.
This recognition places the Fund within the United Nations’ global framework for ocean science through 2030, an effort built around the vision of “the science we need for the ocean we want” and dedicated to turning ocean research into practical solutions for sustainable development. For us, the endorsement affirms that genetic rescue biotechnologies advance international conservation objectives and contribute to numerous Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Biotechnology for a More Resilient Ocean
The Climate Resilience Fund addresses the critical intersection of ocean biodiversity loss and climate change. By applying Revive & Restore’s Genetic Rescue Toolkit, which includes genomic sequencing, cell culture, reproductive technologies, and genetic engineering, the Fund targets two areas where biotechnology can make an outsized difference: the marine microbes that drive biogeochemical cycling, and the blue carbon ecosystems that are among nature’s most efficient carbon capture systems, including mangroves, seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and kelp forests.
Every project in our portfolio must show a clear pathway from the lab to the field, working hand in hand with restoration practitioners, resource managers, and coastal communities to build new tools for the people who will actually use them.
From the Lab to Oceans around the World
Flasks of Macrocystis (giant kelp) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, part of a California-wide kelp biobank being developed by a UCSD team with support from the Climate Resilience Fund | Photo credit: Erik Jepsen, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
The Climate Resilience Fund’s first ten projects span a range of marine species and ecosystems, technical approaches, risk levels, and geographies. A few examples give a sense of the breadth:
- Rescuing Tasmanian giant kelp by selectively breeding an inbred remnant forest with heat-tolerant donor populations, then tracking how the offspring fare in the wild.
- Building the high-throughput tools to culture and engineer the symbiotic microalgae that corals, giant clams, and other marine invertebrates depend on, enabling future interventions to help these animals survive heat stress.
- Using AI to guide seagrass restoration, training models on the microbial communities in coastal sediments to predict which microbes will help eelgrass take hold at a given restoration site.
Alongside these sit projects targeting salt marshes, mangroves, and sea turtles, spanning field sites in the United States, Australia, the Bahamas, Malaysia, Palau, and beyond.
PhD student Mohammad Sedarat holds a 6-well plate containing Macrocystis (giant kelp) gametophytes and embryos, one of hundreds of plates used by UCSD’s team in heat-stress experiments at the embryonic stage. | Photo credit: Erik Jepsen, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego
Advancing the Science the Ocean Needs
The Fund advances all three of the Ocean Decade’s core objectives. It identifies critical ocean knowledge by mapping the genomic variants behind heat tolerance, salinity adaptation, and other climate-relevant traits in vulnerable species. It builds capacity and generates knowledge by establishing biotechnology capabilities worldwide, including in high-need regions such as the Bahamas and Malaysia, and by producing open-access protocols and decision-support tools. Finally, it increases the use of ocean knowledge by delivering practical diagnostics, sourcing guidelines, and site models designed for non-specialists working in the field and in resource-constrained settings.
That work also connects across the SDGs, from life below water (SDG 14) and climate action (SDG 13) to food security and coastal livelihoods (SDGs 1 and 2), reflecting Revive & Restore’s conviction that climate change and biodiversity loss are inseparable challenges that deserve integrated solutions.
What this Endorsement makes Possible
The Fund is Revive & Restore’s newest program, which makes this early recognition all the more meaningful. Beyond the affirmation itself, we see this endorsement doing three things we care deeply about:
- Affirming biotechnology’s role in achieving transformative ocean science solutions, and helping build the case for conservation biotech as a legitimate, science-based toolkit for marine climate resilience.
- Connecting us to a broader international network of scientists, practitioners, funders, and policymakers, strengthening the community-of-practice model at the heart of the Fund and opening the door to cross-initiative learning and collaboration.
- Raising the Fund’s visibility on the global stage, which we hope will attract new partners, new investment, and new opportunities to expand our reach and impact.
Building from Here
As an endorsed Action, the Fund now joins a global community of initiatives working toward a healthier, more resilient ocean. Our inaugural cohort spans field sites and institutions in the Bahamas, Malaysia, Palau, Australia, the United States, and beyond, but we hope that’s just the beginning. The Fund is designed to grow, and we’re committed to expanding into additional regions, including more Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, as the program scales.
You can explore the full list of Ocean Decade Contributions here.
We’ll share more as we begin to leverage this designation. For now, we’re grateful for the recognition, energized by the community it connects us to, and more determined than ever to demonstrate what biotechnology can do for the ocean we want.
