Abstract:  A healthy ocean is crucial for a sustainable future. Universities play a key role in supporting societies to understand marine ecosystems, humanity’s impact on them, and how to uncover sustainable solutions. This practice‐based article examines how universities can enhance their societal impact by developing new organizational models that integrate research, education, and collaboration with societal stakeholders. It poses critical questions: What incentives drive researchers to make an impact or make their results usable? How can universities promote pathways to societal impact? And how do new organizational forms, such as transdisciplinary centres, influence traditional university structures? The article compares two transdisciplinary centres, the Centre for Sea and Society at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and the Center for Ocean and Society at Kiel University, Germany. Both centres aim to address urgent ocean‐related challenges by fostering collaboration across disciplines and engaging external stakeholders. Gothenburg’s centre works across seven faculties, promoting a broad range of activities, while Kiel’s centre has a more focused agenda on marine resource management, geohazards, and food security, supported partly by government funding through the university. Key findings reveal that while these centres play a vital role in building networks and addressing global sustainability challenges, they face challenges in securing funding, integrating into traditional university structures, and measuring societal impact. Kiel’s core funding allows a long‐term strategy, but most work still depends on project funding whereas Gothenburg’s reliance on university resources requires regular justification of its relevance. Balancing academic missions with societal impact remains a central trade‐off, but these centres demonstrate how universities can advance transdisciplinary research and contribute to a sustainable future.

Keywords:  future university models; marine research; ocean solutions; transdisciplinary centres; university impact

Published:   7 April 2025

Issue:   Vol 2 (2025): Knowledge Integration in Ocean Governance