Study title

This dataset was collected to investigate the personal perspectives of 56 researchers who took part in the international, interdisciplinary GCRF Blue Communities project. Researchers at all career stages came from the UK and four Southeast Asian countries, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines. One of the main goals of the project was to build mutual research capacity across research participants towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and addressing challenges related to wellbeing, livelihoods and food security for coastal communities in the Southeast Asian countries. This dataset contains quantitative data, collected via an online survey, from a diverse group of researchers on the impact of the research capacity building activity in this project, which had taken the specific approach of ‘learning-by-doing’ to strengthen capacity.Seas and coasts and the nature that lives in them provide multiple services (e.g. farmed and wild capture protein-rich seafood for local consumption and sale, coastal flood and storm defences, tourism, leisure, marine renewable energy, transport and climate regulation) that can be exploited or are passively used to support local economies and the health and well-being of coastal communities. Yet, there is an increasing demand for ocean space resulting from expanding use of the marine environment, and a growing awareness that much of the marine environment is deteriorating. In response a need for marine planning (MP) has grown globally to ensure sustainable use of marine space and extraction of its resources. This is particularly evident in E and SE Asia, where conflicts over marine space and resources are growing, added to by pressures of population growth The capacity to implement MP throughout E and SE Asia is largely lacking and presents an overarching challenge: to improve the integrated management of marine and coastal environments to reduce conflict between users, mitigate risks associated with expanded or new...