The Commonwealth Argosy Foundation is an independent not-for-profit company that exists to give grant support in three main areas of activity: 

• Marine scientific research
• Education
• Entrepreneurship in communities

The Argosy Foundation is currently fund-raising for two activities:

1. A Commonwealth PhD research post at the Marine Institute of Plymouth University;
2. A community-based entrepreneurship programme for fishing communities in Sierra Leone.

To visit the Argosy Foundation website, click *here or click the images.

To find out more or to get involved, just get in touch.

Argosy Foundation launch 28 Oct 2014

Brian Thomas

Charting a course to a blue horizon

The Argosy Foundation is a social enterprise promoting economic development and environmental sustainability framed within the context of the blue economy and the stewardship of the marine environment.

Overfishing and pollution have led to the rapid decline of one of our greatest resources: the world’s oceans, which span 71% of the surface of our planet. The cause of the ocean’s decline seems to be that we treat it in equal measure as an endless resource and as a rubbish pit. We do this at our peril. 

The blue economy offers the prospect of sustained, environmentally sound, and socially inclusive growth.

The challenges facing the world’s oceans call for an integrated response rooted in marine and maritime governance. 

Argosy Foundation is a facilitator for the common good. By working with key stakeholders we’ll harness international thought leadership and global best practice. We’ll promote collaboration across international borders, and knowledge transfer between companies, organizations and institutions. 

Our work

We’ll encourage and facilitate partnerships, bringing together businesses and universities to showcase practical solutions and offer a platform to leading thinking and best practice in the integration of blue economy principles. 

We’ll also work with others to ensure core messages are assimilated by mandate into education and training programmes.

Marine knowledge is at the core of our work. We harvest and propagate it to improve access to information about the sea; maritime spatial planning to ensure efficient and sustainable management of activities at sea; and integrated maritime surveillance to give authorities a better picture of what is happening at sea.

We aspire to become a centre of global excellence for promoting the principles of the blue economy in the marine and maritime context. We shall create a maritime cluster from the shipping, coastal, cruise and maritime tourism sectors; offshore oil and gas; coastal protection; marine energy development; blue biotechnology and other sectors.

Within that cluster we’ll commission reports and studies; facilitate academic exchanges and set up business and science forums involving private sector, scientists and NGOs to help shape ideas and results; and drive initiatives to co-ordinate maritime research between nations and thereby increase its worth. 

We intend to set up an open collaborative platform inviting the participation of all stakeholders and an online library of best practices, insights and learning. 

We’ll initiate and manage an international knowledge base – a register of marine ecologists, engineers and ocean scientists with skills to develop and apply new technologies in the marine environment. It will constitute a global marine sector skills alliance register, the resources of which will be at the disposal of the Commonwealth.

Trade & Business

We’ll highlight the links between sustainability and business growth. Regeneration of resources is crucial.

We’ll create a Blue Economy Business and Science Forum that will serve as a conduit for our aspirations. 

Our aim is to demonstrate that by adopting blue economy credentials and encouraging others to do so promotes economic growth and prosperity. 

We’ll highlight that we generate growth by modernising particular maritime sub-sectors such as ship repair and maintenance facilities; port and maritime services such as provision, ship waste, deep-sea rescue and surveillance, offshore supply services; fishing industry, in particular the processing industry and aquaculture; marine and coastal tourism including cruise lines; offshore energy exploration and exploitation, including clean and renewable energy; environmental protection including research. 

Commonwealth

Our catalyst for transformational change is the Commonwealth family of nations.

The Commonwealth includes some of the world’s largest, smallest, richest and poorest countries, spanning five regions: Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and the Pacific.

Of its 53 sovereign member states, 46 are bounded by the sea. The Commonwealth is the world’s largest group of nations, with a combined GDP of 8.4 trillion dollars and an annual growth of 3.7%. 

Yet whilst collectively the Commonwealth is economically robust, most of its constituent countries have neither the know-how nor cost-effective means to address huge problems. 

Argosy Foundation offers a sense of purpose and cohesion around shared objectives by the provision of a platform for global advocacy on matters that are crucial to the future well-being, sustainability, and prosperity of Commonwealth nations.

Our remit is not exclusively geopolitical. We’ll also help to fund focused projects with limited time frames both small and large within the Commonwealth which conform to best practice in the facilitation of ecological sustainability. They will have the demonstrable capacity to produce clear and measurable returns.

Maritime careers

60% of the Commonwealth’s 2.2 billion citizens are under the age of 30. 

Coasts, seas and oceans have the potential to be a major source of new jobs and growth. We aspire to increase the attractiveness of a maritime career to young people. 

90% of the world’s trade in goods is conducted by sea. Yet our underlying message is that a career in the maritime sector is about more than serving in ships. 

Our message is that the sector also offers interesting careers in related sectors such as oil and gas exploration and exploitation (offshore and land-based), coastal and maritime tourism, civil and environmental protection of the sea and coastlines, technology development and engineering for information management and communication systems, research, consulting, engineering, or management. 

With messages that reflect the diversity of career opportunities in the maritime sector, campaigns can target more candidates and of different education levels. 

Through the principles of the blue economy set in the marine and maritime context, we’ll demonstrate how to create prosperity for future generations that is not at the expense of tomorrow’s opportunities.

We can make a difference

By bringing knowledge and practical help to small states and being a champion for change, we aspire to improve ocean health and economic prosperity, help alleviate poverty, and improve human well-being. 

Through the propagation of knowledge, and the facilitation of conservation and regeneration models, we seek to inform and engage, bonding together disparate nations in a common cause. 

By so doing, we shall also increase global awareness of the consequences of doing nothing.