Marineplan began in 2009 as a project focused on maritime spatial planning and policies, a line of research administratively framed within the Coastal Planning and Territorial Information Technologies Research Group of the Regional Government of Andalusia (Spain).

Since then, it has continuously carried out research (and teaching) activities that have addressed, mainly through European projects, issues that have been the focus of attention by EU and international institutions: marine spatial planning, ocean governance, and ocean geopolitics are the main areas covered by most of the resources made available to the scientific and educational communities and administrative bodies through this website.