Ocean governance is characterised by social-ecological complexity and divergence in stakeholder values and perspectives. Meeting the challenges set out in the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development will require transdisciplinary approaches that can embrace multiple ways of knowing to develop shared understandings within interdependent communities of practice and ensure they can be applied in interventions that are adaptive, proactive, socially just, critically reflexive and fit to meet the Decade’s challenges. We present the outcomes of an innovative participatory art process, the Exquisite Corpse Project, with the aim of highlighting multiple perspectives, and developing empathy between participants. We will engage a selected group of researchers from the emerging ‘Ocean Art-Ocean Science’ community to explore the topic of marine heatwaves and their impacts based on data collected in the Northeast Pacific by Ocean Networks Canada and other sources. Through a facilitated process, participants will create three pieces of art that will build on each other and will be exchanged between participants. At the end, all created artworks will be reviewed by the full group to explore emerging insights on marine heatwaves and to surface participants’ underlying values and emotions, which is rarely done in scientific circles where the main mode of discourse employs rational dispassionate exchange. By creating a fun, emotionally-engaging process, we aim to show how the Exquisite Corpse project can strengthen interpersonal bonds, build social cohesion, create opportunities to surface people’s values and perspectives, and develop new transdisciplinary insights in a non-confrontational way. This study is part of an ongoing process exploring transdisciplinary approaches for multidirectional art-science collaborations and developing new research methods for including artistic insight and expression within the scientific discovery process. Instead of the conventional ‘outward looking’ strategy of many art-science projects translating scientific outputs to new formats, our approach is primarily ‘inward looking’. We aim to provide an opportunity for scientists to create art, thus allowing them to explore their own emotions, values and experiences through different ways of knowing.

In 2017 Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), a research infrastructure operator, sought to redefine its core reporting metrics. We asked, “which metrics should we hold as key, essential metrics to drive our organizational priorities and decision making?” This question helped us define a collection of eleven sets of yardsticks, some inward-looking, others squarely focused on societal outcomes. Here, we introduce the individual metrics adopted, insights they are helping us glean and some of their inherent challenges. ONC’s core funding agency, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), continues to emphasize scientific output as a primary criterion. We measure this by counting peer-reviewed presentations and publications resulting from use the facility and ONC’s data archives. But this seemingly clear-cut metric has been a thorny one to define, track and grow. Training and support for post-secondary students is another core reporting metric, however this measurement is also fraught with ambiguities. Some of the easier metrics to track are those specifically related to facility operations, such as reliability and user satisfaction. But we were perplexed by the question of how to measure “optimal use” of the facility, as mandated by CFI. Optimal use is hard to define for an underwater infrastructure design like ONC’s, which can be flexibly extended with no hard limits on hardware capacity, archive volume or data access. When it comes to societal benefit, our approach has been twofold. One set of metrics examines technology transfer, grants and contracts. Another set focuses on our engagements and active collaborations with governmental, indigenous and non-governmental organizations. However, some outcomes remain challenging to measure. While it is straightforward to count up our external interactions and collaborations, how can we quantify their current and future societal impact? These and related questions will be explored.

Using bibliometric analysis techniques, we trace the evolution of climate and climate-change related articles in major oceanographic journals, 1987-2017. We use these bibliometric tools (network mapping, cluster analysis, alluvial analysis, corpus keyword detection) to document trends in growth, integration and centralization of climate-related research within ocean sciences over the past three decades. Such analysis methods offer an objective and complementary methodology, in contrast to the traditional “expert panel” approach, for guiding long-term strategic science planning. But how does the macro trend compare to scientific outputs supported by large ocean observatory facilities? Have scientists making use of these facilities followed, led or diverged from the general trend? We compare the macro trend to corpora of published science from two such facilities, Australia’s Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) and Ocean Networks Canada (ONC). The goal is to discern the extent to which these “big science” ocean observatories have been able to support or lead research that helps inform policy, management and the public about critical societal issues such as long term ocean change.

In 2018 Ocean Networks Canada initiated an Artist in Residence program, despite uncertainties about what to expect and how to best manage it. To our surprise, the announcement call attracted immediate interest from artists around the world. Partnering with the University of Victoria Faculty of Fine Arts, we formed a selection committee who chose our first Artist in Residence. Since then, the program has exceeded our expectations and brought us into the compelling realm of transdisciplinary collaboration between ocean science and the arts. This collaboration is bearing fruit not only through the creation of new artistic works, but also as a venue for hosting conversations that can help bridge disciplinary boundaries across campus and across continents. This presentation will recap our Artist in Residence program and the artists who have been engaged both formally and informally through this initiative, as well as some of the fascinating and diverse work they have produced. We will describe our management processes, outreach efforts and some of the new challenges and opportunities we have encountered along the way. We will also share advice and insights from artists who have engaged in explorations along the Art-Science interface.