In this article, we summarise the content from our focus series on the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 14: life below water, and we highlight further interesting research in the field. The UN write that the aim of this goal is to: "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development." This includes topics such as reducing marine pollution, protecting and restoring ecosystems, reducing ocean acidification, and sustainable fishing. The aim of the OcéanIA project is to develop new artificial intelligence and mathematical modelling tools to contribute to the understanding of the oceans and their role in regulating and sustaining the biosphere, and tackling climate change. We interviewed Nayat Sánchez-Pi, Director of the Inria Chile Research Center, who told us more about this important and exciting project.

Researchers on the OcéanIA project are developing new artificial intelligence and mathematical modelling tools to contribute to the understanding of the oceans and their role in regulating and sustaining the biosphere, and tackling climate change. You may have seen our recent interview with the director of the project, and of Inria Chile, Nayat Sánchez-Pi. She explained the challenges of research in the field, what they are working on as part of the project, and the role that AI methods play. A key part of the project is data, and much of this is being collected by the Tara Microbiome-CEODOS expedition. The objective of this expedition is to study the marine microorganisms which play a fundamental role in ocean ecosystems.

Nayat Sánchez-Pi is the Director of the Inria Chile Research Center. We asked her about her research and about the OcéanIA project which she leads. The aim of the OcéanIA project is to develop new artificial intelligence and mathematical modeling tools to contribute to the understanding of the oceans and their role in regulating and sustaining the biosphere, and tackling the climate change. I have been working in the area of artificial intelligence and machine learning for more than 15 years now. During this time I have always had an interest in finding ways of taking the state-of-the-art of my area of research and applying it to have a direct impact on the real world.