SMI Annual Review of the Marine Science and Technology Sector

The seventh business survey of UK marine scientific industries highlights continued growth for the Marine Science and Technology sector on the back of strong exports.

The seventh survey, focused on UK companies operating primarily in Marine Science and Technology (MST) activities, aims to provide an insight into current business activity in terms of market sectors, market size and business confidence both current and forecast. This year we are adopted a slightly different approach and companies were invited to participate after attendance at Ocean Business 2015 on 14-16 April at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton.

Highlights from the report are:

• Commercial Marine Science and Technology (MST) contributes on average, nearly £2bn/year to the UK economy.

• Most of the individual companies are in manufacturing or service and therefore the additional indirect contribution will be substantially higher.

• Most of the companies export to a total annual value of at least £760m operating on a global scale. Market diversity is wide and includes oil/gas, renewable energy, environment, ports/harbors and military.

• Whereas there had been a drop in the number of companies reporting a turnover increase, investment in R&D remained the same, with a strong commitment to maintain or increase this level.

The 2015 Annual Review of the UK Marine Scientific Industries can be found here.