Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology & Aquaculture

The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) is a governmental research organization operating under the supervision of the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) of the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs.
HCMR comprises by three research Institutes:
- Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology and Aquaculture (IMBBC);
- Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters (IMBRIW);
- Institute of Oceanography (IO).

It aims to carry out scientific and technological research, and experimental development, dissemination and implementation of produced results, especially in the fields of study and protection of the hydrosphere, its organisms, its interface with the atmosphere, the coast and the sea bottom, the physical, chemical, biological and geological conditions that prevail and regulate the above mentioned systems with:
- the production of products and supply of services;
- the support of decision-making concerning the general public, the economy and culture;
- their economical exploitation either by the HCMR and/or by its employees or by third parties.

Institute of Marine Biology, Biotechnology & Aquaculture (IMBBC) is one of the three institutes of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), based on the premises of HCMR in Crete (Thalassokosmos) and having also facilities in the areas of Aghios Kosmas (Attica) and Souda (Crete). The institute was created by the merging of the Institute for Aquaculture (IA) with the Institute for Marine Biology and Genetics (IMBG) in 2012. As a consequence, its main research activities arose from those of its constituent institutions that not only subsist, but are further enriched by the potential of joining forces, synergies, complementarity and harmonized effects.

Its main research actions and directions refer to the fields of biodiversity, genomics, population genetic structure of natural and cultivated marine species, aquaculture, quest for novel and/or improved products and organisms, species identification, ecosystem functioning and protection, conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity and its components also taking into account socio-economic and cultural factors.