Established October 1, 2001, the Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center (LMRCSC) is a cooperative agreement between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES).  The LMRCSC is funded by NOAA’s Educational Partnership Program and its goal is to establish research and training programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities that are congruent with the programmatic interests of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries).  This cooperative was borne out of a need to enhance the matriculation of well trained scientists (from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds)  into fields that serve the national interests to conserve and manage our living marine resources and to enhance the diversity of NOAA's future workforce.

 This program reaches out to a genre of universities that have typically not been engaged in such partnerships and provides support to build their capacity to do research and be involved in the scientific and educative agendas that empower and serve communities and the nation.

The Living Marine Resources Cooperative Science Center consortium is made up of six institutions: University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Delaware State University (DSU), Hampton University (HU), Savannah State University (SSU), University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB), and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS).  The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is the lead institution.  UMES is an historically black university offering bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees in marine and environmental science.  UMES is also the only HBCU in the country that has a Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit.  Delaware State University, Hampton University and Savannah State University are also HBCU’s with undergraduate and master’s degree granting programs in marine science.  The University of Miami is a tier I research university.  Its School of Marine and Atmospheric Science boasts a strong research program with over 100 faculty and 150 graduate students and it has a strong fisheries research program which contributes significantly to the research capacity of the LMRCSC.  The University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) is a research campus of the University System of Maryland.  Its faculty members are leaders in the fields of marine biotechnology and have integrated that technology with issues that affect our living marine resources.

The LMRCSC has supported over a hundred students, graduate and undergraduate, has graduated students with graduate degrees that are working in the fisheries field, and is currently engaged in numerous research projects of interest to NOAA Fisheries.  Successful research projects of the LMRCSC include: socioeconomics of coastal fisheries, effects of diseases on fishery management, essential habitat for estuarine dependent fishes, marine aquaculture, marine biotechnology, protected species, and marine chemistry.  All of these research projects are relevant to NOAA Fisheries interests and provide valuable training experiences for graduate and undergraduate students supported by the Center.  The LMRCSC is connected via video-teleconferencing units that enable the partner institutions to share instruction and to bring NOAA staff to their campuses via video conferences, providing guest lectures, seminars, and participation on graduate student research committees.  The LMRCSC has also developed a capacity to process benthic samples for NOAA research laboratories that will establish a national laboratory that will serve laboratories across the country.  This virtual laboratory exists as a partnership between the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Hampton University and Savannah State University.  It will sort benthic organisms from catalogued samples, as well as process those samples for sediment grain size and chemical analysis.