The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences (CSMS) is a unique initiative on a global scale, applying an interdisciplinary approach with highly professional standards, the largest academic center of marine sciences in Israel. CSMS has five complementary sections: Marine Geosciences, Marine Biology, Marine Technologies, Blue biotechnologies and Sustainable mariculture and Maritime Strategies. The close collaboration of scientists from the five sections offers unique opportunities for interdisciplinary research that can holistically address past, present, and future aspects of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. CSMS is leading the Mediterranean Sea Research Center of Israel (MERCI), a consortium of academic and research institutes and addressing the array of scientific, technological, economic, security and environmental challenges and opportunities we are facing within the Mediterranean and along Israel’s coastline. Location and facilities: CSMS' main hub of laboratories and teaching facilities is located on the Carmel Mountain Campus. Our research sites also include three coastal research centers with easy access to the Mediterranean: a facility which develops and operates state-of-the-art underwater vehicles and two long-term marine ecological research stations that focus on coastal water research and long-term monitoring of the ecology and species of the coastal Mediterranean, as well as examining the anthropogenic impacts on the marine environment and on apex predator distribution. While the Mediterranean is our major focus, our faculty also perform research around the world as well as in the tropical coral reefs of the Red Sea with a field laboratory at the Interuniversity Institute of Marine Sciences at Eilat.