EurOcean, the European Centre for information on Marine Science and Technology, was established on February 28th, 2002, by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), and is an independent scientific non-governmental organisation. Its aim is to facilitate information exchange and generate value-added products in the field of marine sciences and technologies between a wide range of governmental and non-governmental bodies. EurOcean provides comprehensive databases of information on topics related to marine science and technology in Europe with priority given to three main domains: Marine Knowledge Management, Marine Research Infrastructures and Ocean Public Outreach and Awareness activities. EurOcean can thus be seen as a marine and maritime knowledge broker.
EurOcean, a member based organisation, has two types of members. Full Members are European marine research, innovation and entrepreneurship, funding and outreach organisations. Cooperating Members are organisations with a regional or global reach that are involved in activities complementary to those of EurOcean.