The Marine Science Institute is flourishing at UCSB within the physical and intellectual context of a general campus. The Administrative arm of the Institute serves several important roles including:

• provides an effective, efficient, technologically and financially sound organization to administer current contracts and grants as well as to support new initiatives
• serves as the parent organization for existing centers and programs (i.e., the Coastal Research Center, the Marine Biotechnology Center, the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, the Ocean and Coastal Policy Center, and the MSI Analytical Laboratory) and the regional headquarters for the management of six University of California Natural Reserve System (NRS) reserve sites.
• promotes the formation of new interdisciplinary centers within MSI to tackle the major unresolved questions in marine science and expand efforts to link research, education, and policy
• supports expansion of MSI's education outreach programs to capture early fascination with the sea and eventually see marine science as a integral piece of the K-12 curriculum
• assists in fund raising efforts to insure excellence in our programs and strengthen the Institute's position as a leader in the development of innovative, interdisciplinary marine research
• promotes the communication of ongoing research results and evolving concepts within the marine science community at UCSB through newsletters, seminars, workshops, conferences, and other appropriate forums