The Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) is a Scottish charity (established in 1884) committed to promoting, delivering and supporting high-quality independent research and education in marine science. As the owner and operator of the Scottish Marine Institute, SAMS is an internationally renowned marine research establishment. SAMS focuses much of its research activities on multidisciplinary research questions from Scottish coastal waters to the Arctic Ocean. SAMS is a Collaborative Centre of the Natural Environment Research Council, and hosts the National Facility for Scientific Diving and the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa. It is an academic partner in UHI Millennium Institute under whose auspices SAMS delivers the BSc (Hons) Marine Science and trains PhD students. SAMS is further a learned society with approximately 600 members. It is a multidisciplinary research laboratory with science staff from all the marine science disciplines including the physical sciences, earth sciences, biology and ecology, molecular and microbiology, and the social sciences. SAMS has a current staff of approximately 130 people and 25 PhD students.