There is an increasing awareness that science can be made more effective for management and decision-making if it is co-created (e.g. co-designed, co-produced, and co-delivered) with stakeholders and decision-makers. This co-creation requires bringing together people from diverse educational backgrounds, interests, disciplines, and economic and professional sectors. Furthermore, the process of co-creating ocean science is new to many scientists and stakeholders. There is a real need to share knowledge and experiences about what works and what does not. This requires connecting people from around the world who are actively involved in the co-creation of ocean and coastal science.

Connecting people across sectors, disciplines, experiences, languages, and cultures - not to mention 24 time zones, requires a new way of working and a new kind of network. The Ocean Knowledge Action Network is pursuing just such a network - called an Impact Network. In this talk, we will discuss how to create a bottom-up, global impact network to change the way knowledge is shared to help those that seek to co-create ocean science for marine and coastal management.