This group formally established in 1992, is a multidisciplinary excellence research group that at present consists of 22 researchers of which half are seniors and half are PhD students. Three senior researchers from CEntre de Formation et de Recherche sur l’Environnement Marin (CEFREM) at Perpignan have joined the UB-based team as their research topics are highly relevant for the goals of GRACCIE. The GRACCIE UB team personnel profiles is inclusive of the fields of geology, geography, biology, geodesy and topography, physical oceanography, environmental sciences, and general marine sciences. Technical and administrative support is provided both by UB and on a project basis. The group has one coordinator, one vice-coordinator and a management board made of the senior researchers. The whole group meets regularly to discuss science topics and relevant strategic and management issues.

CRG Marine Geosciences works mostly on four closely related topics: (1) Sedimentary processes and products, (2) Biogeochemical fluxes and marine environment, (3) Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, and (4) Applied Marine Geology, including effects of anthropogenic impacts. The working areas of the group have a wide geographic spread as it currently does research activities in the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and Polar oceans, amongst other areas. The altitudinal range of the research carried out within the group extends from river basins and shorelines to deep basins, with the focus on continental margins (shelf and slope). The group is a frequent user of sea-going large-scale facilities like large oceanographic vessels (including drilling vessels), ROVs and a variety of fixed, towed, sampling and measurement instruments. Since 1992 the group has been strongly involved in EC funded research projects (of which some have been coordinated by the group) and in international and national initiatives. In the last few years the group has been increasingly involved in activities of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).

Some recent research highlights include, amongst other, a new methodology that allowed placing late Neanderthals in a climatic context (Nature, 2007), findings on the transition to the modern Antarctic ice sheet including the identification of mega landslide deposits that could evidence such a transition (papers in Geology, April 2006, and Palaeo-3, April 2008), the discovery of previously unknown significant Holocene climate variability in the western Mediterranean region from a deepwater sediment record off Minorca (Paleoceanography, 2007), and the recognition of the important role of flushing submarine canyons in transferring large amounts of matter and energy from shallow to deep during short-lived episodes that sustain the deep ocean ecosystem while holding a strong potential of being dramatically impacted by the on-going global warming (paper in Nature 2006).

Future activities will go on within the above-mentioned main research topics, with a likely intensification of marine environment monitoring actions, polar and paleoclimatic research.