Marine Climate Change Science (MCCS) Programme
Overview
The Marine Climate Change Science (MCCS) programme aims to serve as a national focal point for multi-disciplinary marine climate change research. This will advance the core sciences of marine climate change, and develop solutions to help address the challenges faced by our coastal and marine environment arising from climate change, such as sea level rise, increasing sea surface temperatures, and extreme storm events. The programme places emphasis on multi-disciplinary and translational research, in order to inform the development of evidence-based interventions and solutions. This will help to safeguard our coastal and marine ecosystems against climate change, and leverage existing natural capital in our blue spaces. This is part of NParks’ efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, as well as contribute towards a nationwide effort to build climate resilience.
Led by NParks, this $25 million multi-stakeholder research programme under RIE2025 will involve key partners across government agencies, research institutes and industry partners.
Key Research Themes
Research efforts under the MCCS programme will cut across various disciplines, as encompassed by the following core research verticals (Vs) and enabling horizontals (Hs):
- V1 Blue Carbon Science – to provide solutions that will reduce Singapore’s carbon footprint while conserving our coastal and marine ecosystems, through building a foundational science for developing a marine carbon credits economy in Singapore.
- V2 Eco-Engineering – to protect our coasts against sea level rise and extreme storm events via sustainable engineering measures, while incorporating nature-based solutions which will also enhance our marine environment and create new habitats, thereby providing a sound basis for the sustainable development of Singapore’s islands and coasts.
- V3 Ecological Resilience – to better understand the impact of climate change on marine species, habitats, ecosystems and connectivity, so as to inform measures to enhance marine ecosystem resilience against climate change-induced disturbances, and safeguard our natural marine capital through science-based management approaches.
- H1 Marine Climate Impact – to develop predictive models for projecting how climate change may alter existing biogeochemical processes in Singapore’s marine environment, so as to inform the formulation of interventions and strategies that are relevant to the anticipated changes in our local marine environment.
- H2 Community-Driven Climate Resilience Planning – to explore how the social sciences can add important methods and perspectives towards climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts in our marine environment.
Grant Calls
Grant calls will be launched via NRF’s Integrated Grant Management System (IGMS).
The MCCS 1st Grant Call was launched on 17 December 2021. More details on the 1st grant call can be found here.
The MCCS 2nd Grant Call was launched on 25 March 2024. More details on the 2nd grant call can be found here.
The MCCS 3rd Grant Call has been launched on 15 November 2024. More details on the 3rd grant call can be found here.
Awarded Projects
| S/N | Project Title | Host Institution | Duration | Research Theme | Project Synopsis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Blue Carbon Framework for Singapore’s national climate change policy (BlueCarbonSG) | NUS |
3 years (2023 - 2026) |
V1 Blue Carbon | This project will undertake national blue carbon accounting, mapping and predictive modelling, so as to increase understanding of Singapore’s blue carbon dynamics, by investigating various factors affecting blue carbon stocks and fluxes in Singapore’s mangrove, seagrass and mudflat ecosystems. It will map the distribution of blue carbon across Singapore, and understand how Singapore’s blue carbon stocks and fluxes may change over time, and develop a framework to allow Singapore to incorporate quantitative targets for blue carbon into national greenhouse gas reporting mechanisms for the first time |
| 2 | iNvestigation of wAve aTtenUation over mangRoves, sEagrasses and coral reefs (NATURE) |
TCOMS |
3 years (2024 - 2027) | V2 Eco-Engineering | This project will characterise the functional baselines and the effectiveness of mangroves, seagrass meadows and coral reefs in attenuating wave energy, and particularly for mangroves and seagrasses, in contributing to sediment accumulation, through combinations of physical experiments and numerical simulations. It aims to deepen our understanding of the potential of mangroves, seagrass meadows and coral reefs in protecting our coastline and develop engineering design guidelines and standards for implementing nature-based solutions along Singapore coastlines. |
| 3 | Assessing the long-term viability of nature-based climate solutions to future sea level rise and marine heatwaves in Singapore | NTU | 4 years (2024 - 2028) | V3 Ecological Resilience | This project is the first quantification of the survival thresholds and ecological tipping points for mangrove and coral reefs in Singapore, to assess their long-term viability as nature-based solutions. It takes a multi-disciplinary approach which combines sedimentary geological archives and field ecological surveying with high-resolution climate models to establish the ocean conditions required for successful climate change adaptation and mitigation using these natural ecosystems. |
| 4 | Enhancing urban coral reef resilience to climate change across biological scales | NUS | 4 years (2023 - 2027) | V3 Ecological Resilience | This project will study how micro-organism communities in coral reefs may help to sustain well-functioning reef ecosystems that are resilient to climate change, and develop the science and application of securing the ecological resilience of our coral reefs, in the context of a tropical urban port environment. It seeks to inform the development of an overall suite of ecological and microbial solutions that can be deployed on various urban coral reef sites across Singapore, so as to enhance their climate resilience. |
Contact Us
For enquiries, please contact us at MCCS@nparks.gov.sg.