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Oregon State University announced that it is among three universities chosen to share up to $300 million and to form a new scientific research group on climate, coastal and ocean challenges.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is creating an institute to focus on the challenges through collaboration and shared scientific resources, according to a Wednesday news release. The group will help NOAA expand its research, education and public engagement potential over the next few years.

The Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies, led by the University of Washington with assistance from OSU and the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, will be eligible for the funding for five years, with the possibility of renewal.

According to the release, the institute will focus on nine targets: climate and ocean variability, change and impacts; earth systems and processes; environmental chemistry and ocean carbon; marine ecosystem observations, analysis and forecasts; ocean and coastal observations; environmental data science; aquaculture science; human dimensions in marine systems; and polar studies.

Scientists in OSU’s colleges of Engineering, Science, Agricultural Sciences, and Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences will participate in the group.

OSU has been part of another NOAA partnership, the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies, located in Newport at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, since 1982.

“Increasingly, our scientific challenges require novel collaborations that span regional to global scales and include the human dimension,” said Roberta Marinelli, dean of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, in the news release. “This new institute will provide a wealth of expertise and innovation to advance the science that underpins NOAA’s mission.”