ADVISORY PLAN
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Conseil International pour l’Exploration de la Mer (CIEM)
Recommended format for purpose of citation: ICES. 2025. Advisory Plan. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.28238150
This document has been produced under the auspices of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.
© 2025 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
CC-BY 4.0 - This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
ICES ADVISORY PLAN
Advice for decision-making for our seas and ocean
ICES mission is to advance and share scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and the services they provide and to use this knowledge to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability goals. ICES advice supports ecosystem-based decisions aimed at the management of human activities in our seas and ocean and contributes towards the application of an ecosystem approach under climate change. The ecosystem approach seeks to maintain the health of marine ecosystems alongside appropriate human use, consistent with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for the benefit of current and future generations. We are developing the scientific knowledge and capacity to address the advisory needs and management challenges of the coming decades.
To support the application of the ecosystem approach, we are committed to facilitating the incorporation of a wide range of integrated and transdisciplinary scientific knowledge developed under ICES Science Plan. This knowledge will inform decision-makers and society about the state of and trends in our marine resources, consequences of human activities, and options for conservation and management under cumulative pressures. Thus, the ecosystem approach requires the consideration of the interconnected nature of human activities and marine ecosystems.
To achieve our mission, we will answer specific advice requests on challenges encountered by policy developers and resource managers. All our advice is developed according to a consistent framework while applying the 10 ICES advice principles. This ensures that the advisory process is open, reproducible, and transparent and that it generates independent, credible, and peerreviewed advice based on the work of our scientific community.
ICES advice principles
We will continue to develop and integrate overviews on the state of ecosystems, fisheries, aquaculture, and emerging sectors such as offshore renewable energy in the ICES region. These overviews provide context, allowing users to understand the implications of sectoral decisions and trade-offs in an ecosystem context. Incrementally, and in the longer term, the overviews will incorporate social, cultural, and economic information, which can be used to inform ecosystem and risk-based actionable advice.
Ongoing development of knowledge, advice, tools, and assessments to support the ecosystem approach will build on our longstanding experience as impartial advisers on the status and use of marine ecosystems. All advice products will be underpinned by robust data management and governance utilizing the best available ecosystem science.
Fisheries Overviews summarize the services derived from fishing activities and the effects of fishing on the ecosystem in each ICES ecoregion.
Aquaculture overviews
Fisheries overviews
Fishing opportunities give stock-specific advice on stock status and fishing opportunities. This advice integrates the precautionary approach, with the objective of achieving maximum sustainable yield (MSY).
Fishing opportunities
Aquaculture Overviews summarize aquaculture activities within ecoregions, including information on the species cultured, the level of production, the socioeconomic importance, and environmental interactions.
Ecosystem overviews
Ecosystem Overviews provide information on trends in an ecosystem in recent years and identify the main human pressures, explaining how these pressures affect key ecosystem components.
Scientific evidence is required to avoid, minimize, and mitigate the negative impacts of human activities across multiple sectors on the marine environment and ecosystems. Exploring consequences and trade-offs will support sustainable development aimed at both human and environmental well-being, improving stewardship of marine ecosystems for future generations.
How we work
ICES advice is independent and based on the best available science. To remain relevant and credible, it should be developed in a participatory and transparent manner. We will continue to provide the evidence base for policy developers and managers of marine activities in response to their needs for recurrent advice, special one-off requests, and adaptive management solutions.
Ecosystem-based management (EBM) increasingly necessitates stakeholder engagement, which needs to be coordinated, inclusive, and transparent to ensure the credibility and independence of the science and advice being produced.
ICES Viewpoints will also provide valuable contributions to global discussions around the state of the marine ecosystem, the management of human impacts, and the provision of goods and services.
Advice production process
Credibility
The breadth of knowledge across the North Atlantic and adjacent sea areas and the dynamism of our 160 expert groups is the foundation of our advice. Our experience as a trusted advisor and evidence provider for policy builds on this foundation. By facilitating robust scientific debate and critical evaluation of data, methods, and knowledge sources, we will continue to provide credible best available science to inform management decisions in line with societal goals. Documented guidelines and frameworks combined with independent peer review and multiple independent steps in the advice production process are the key mechanisms to deliver credible advice.
Relevance
We will continue our dialogue with requesters of advice and wider society to maintain the relevance of our advice. The management objectives determined by society are already incorporated into the fisheries advice framework. We will work with partners to create a similar ecosystem advice framework which reflects international objectives, such as those of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and Straddling Fish Stocks Agreement (UNSFA), and regional objectives such as the Baltic Sea Action Plan and the North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy. We will address advisory needs related to national and multinational legislation, including the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
Legitimacy
We will continue to ensure that our advice is developed in such a way that it is not influenced by political or commercial interests and that it is developed by consensus and finally approved by the Advisory Committee (ACOM) made up of representatives from each Member Country. The advice production process is strengthened by considering and documenting a plurality of views and diversity of knowledge. The advice will be based on a synthesis of the most current and accurate information, thus constituting the best available science at the time the advice is produced. Clear decision-making and appropriate quality assurance of the advisory processes will underpin our role as an independent and legitimate evidence provider. We will continue to develop and maintain safeguards, such as our Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, to ensure the independence of the advice. Advice will be communicated with our audience in mind and explained without advocating for its implementation.
Priority areas
Assuring quality
We will ensure that the entire advice production cycle from data collection to the publication of objective and independent advice is fit for purpose.
The overarching objective is to ensure that ICES is a world leader in delivering high quality, best available, science-based advice and evidence for decision-making. We will continue to build upon our proven track record of providing quality-assured, reproducible, and transparent advice (principles 5, 6, 7, and 8). The existing quality control and assurance processes will be enhanced further, forming an end-to-end quality assurance framework that will encompass best practice in data management, data integration, and translation into advice.
Assuring quality involves continuous improvement of, planning, process, quality control, feedback loops, communication, training, and transparency of data used in assessments and advice (principle 6).
Vision for 2030
ICES is a world leader in quality-assured best available scientific advice that is reproducible, findable, and accessible.
Advice priorities 2025–2026
• Strengthen the ongoing implementation of the Regional DataBase and Estimation System (RDBES), Transparent Assessment Framework (TAF), and Data Profiling Tool (DPT).
• Prioritize resources for the benchmark process.
• Move towards more multiannual assessments and advice.
• Implement the recommendations of the various ICES expert groups that have addressed quality assurance of data, processes, and advice.
• Include quality indicators for all assessments in the advice.
• Work with stakeholders to address quality issues.
Priority areas
Process innovation and efficiency
ICES advice must be based on the best available science while also meeting stringent requirements for transparency, traceability, reproducibility, documentation, peer review, robustness, and relevance to the needs of requesters and stakeholders.
Knowledge generated by ICES includes data pipelines, tools, and technologies for efficient monitoring, assessment, and advice.
We will work with scientists, advisors, requesters of advice, and stakeholders and be guided by their feedback as we seek to identify new efficiencies in process, products, and implementation. Through our Science Plan, we will continue to develop and co-create relevant and novel scientific knowledge, especially on natural resource management, biodiversity, and climate change to advance our capacity to provide ecosystem-based advice.
Vision for 2030
ICES state-of-the-art advice is produced in an efficient integrated pipeline process leveraging new technologies and innovation.
Advice priorities
2025–2026
• Automate dataflows and integrate ICES databases as much as possible.
• Integrate quality-assured data from stakeholders into our databases and advice.
• Use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and the Transparent Assessment Framework (TAF) to improve efficiency.
• Review and simplify advice products
• Make all stages of the advice production process more efficient.
• Continue to develop communication and decision support tools for advice.
• Use projects to innovate advice.
Priority areas
Building capacity and resilience
ICES network is the biggest driver of the Advisory Plan. We need to grow capacity within the network, foster a culture of effective collaboration, and equip the community with training, tools, frameworks, and resources to deliver the products that will address both existing and new advisory needs.
Expert engagement with knowledge synthesis and the advice production process is one of the unique aspects of ICES, and translation of scientific knowledge into advice relevant for decisionmakers and managers is one of our key strengths. Guided and supported by our Secretariat, we provide a safe and welcoming environment for a diverse expert community to deliver on the mission to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability goals. We will continue to engage with requesters and stakeholders to understand and prioritize their advice needs.
Vision for 2030
ICES and ACOM have sufficient resources, capacity, and budget to sustainably produce and oversee the volume of advice requested.
Advice priorities 2025–2026
• Invest in training and mentoring programmes and succession planning throughout the system.
• Broaden national representation amongst ACOM members in advisory processes, leveraging the expertise of alternates and other experts.
• Streamline and improve our framework and guidelines for advice.
• Ensure that ICES Secretariat has a sustainable budget and adequate staffing to deliver special request and recurrent advice.
• Diversify expertise in support of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science and methods.
Priority areas
Ecosystem and climate-informed actionable advice
ICES aims to produce relevant advice in support of ecosystem-based and climate-aware decision-making. We will continue to develop methods and mechanisms for integrating different types of data and knowledge into advice. This includes specifying measurable indicators for biological and ecological components of marine ecosystems and incrementally developing measurable indicators for the social, cultural, and economic aspects relevant to our advice.
We will continue to develop and refine spatially explicit methods and advice on ecosystem impacts from existing and emerging human activity sectors, in line with sustainable development, conservation, and restoration goals. Pathways for using ecosystem and foodweb models in the provision of ecosystem-informed advice will be developed, as will pathways for including ocean model hindcasts, forecasts, and projections to assess risk, evaluate management strategies, and provide climate-informed advice.
An incremental and iterative approach responsive to stakeholder perceptions and with formal handling and communication of the uncertainties associated with alternative management solutions is required to provide robust ecosystem and climate-informed advice. We will work with requesters of advice, policy developers, managers, stakeholders, and social and natural scientists to identify operational management objectives for well-developed indicators. We will apply a risk-based approach for evaluating and communicating the change in risk associated with operational management options under changing ecosystem and climate considerations, including demonstrated, anticipated, and projected effects.
Vision for 2030
ICES provides relevant ecosystem informed advice across several requester domains to meet conservation, management, and sustainability goals under a changing climate.
Advice priorities
2025–2026
• Further evolve our advice framework for fisheries to take account of ecosystem and climate change impacts.
• Develop cumulative impact assessment methods and advice framework.
• Develop trade-off analysis methods for ecosystem-informed advice.
• Implement the Framework for Ecosystem Informed Science and Advice (FEISA) in targeted advice products.
• Develop climate-informed advice products.
• Continue to provide and develop spatially explicit advice to inform species management, habitat conservation, and restoration plans.
• Draft and publish further ICES Viewpoints to address new advisory priorities.
Priority areas
Highlighting benefits
We will highlight and communicate to existing and potential new users the relevance and benefits of our approach to providing independent science advice.
ICES is the leading, trusted adviser on the impacts of human activities on marine ecosystems, advising on more than 90% of fisheries catches and the impacts of these associated fisheries on the marine ecosystem of the North Atlantic. Our advice draws on the expertise and experience of approximately 6 000 researchers across a multitude of regions and disciplines.
The Stakeholder Engagement Strategy supports our mission and vision to be an independent, world-leading marine science organization which is responsive to a changing society and its challenges. It provides a framework through which stakeholder engagement can continue to evolve, ensuring the credibility, legitimacy, and relevance of our science and scientific advice.
We will continue to develop new types of advice products for different user groups informed by our extensive network and underpinned by our experience as a trusted operator at the science–policy interface. We will profile our strengths in incorporating state-of-the-art scientific knowledge and adapting globally agreed standards to regional management challenges.
We will continue to explore innovative tools and approaches to ensure our advice is accessible and effectively communicated to various audiences.
Vision for 2030
ICES advice is recognized as the global leader in marine scientific advice: credible, legitimate, trustworthy, transparent, reproducible, high-quality, relevant, and reachable.
Advice priorities 2025–2026
• Develop new advice products and tools including innovative online applications.
• Engage with global fora to share the benefits of our advice.
• Engage with new requesters, partners, and collaborators.
• Use ICES communication strategy to amplify the impact of advice.
• Ensure the independence and neutrality of advice while enhancing stakeholder engagement.
• Highlight novel ICES climate-informed and ecosystem-based advice.
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES)
Conseil International pour l’Exploration de la Mer (CIEM)
ICES Secretariat
H. C. Andersens Boulevard 44-46 1553 Copenhagen V, Denmark
Tel: +45 3338 6700 info@ices.dk