Progress in the Industry-University-Institute Cooperative Use of Research Vessels

With the support of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries of Korea, the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) promoted 'The study for the industry-university-institute cooperative use of research vessels', which was an opportunity to advance domestic ocean research to the next level, in line with the launch of the R/V Isabu in 2017. A brief history in relation to the project is described in Lee (Ocean Sci J 57(2), 2022) in this issue. Celebrating the 5th year of the project, KIOST (Marine scientists on a boat, KIOST Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan, 2021) has published a resource book on the progress of the project excluding scientific papers. In this special issue, some of the scientific results from the project are grouped together and introduced. The joint use of research vessels started with large research vessels and gradually expanded to small research vessels. Thus, the target area of the study also included from the open ocean to the coastal waters (KIOST, in Marine scientists on a boat, KIOST Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, Busan, 2021) as shown in the papers featured in this issue.