UBO is a medium-sized university (around 20,000 students) founded in 1971, offering a wide range of programmes in all fields. The Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO) is located in Brest, in Brittany, on the north-western coast of France. It is a multicampus university, with the main site in Brest and satellite campuses in Quimper and Morlaix. Brest is an hour from Paris by air, or 3,5 hours by train.

IUEM is a leading centre for Marine Science innovation through its research, teaching and monitoring missions. Its strong multidisciplinary approach spans from research in Human and Social Sciences to the Sciences of the Universe and Life Sciences, putting IUEM at the top of its field nationally. IUEM is situated in the Brest Technopole (Technology Centre), where it unites over half of the French scientific community working in the Marine Sciences. IUEM has seven laboratories (joint research units involving the UBO, CNRS, IRD, Ifremer and UBS) employing nearly 500 permanent and contract researchers, teacher-researchers, engineers, technicians and administrative staff. As an internal school of UBO, IUEM offers eight master’s programmes in the field of Marine and Coastal Sciences (SML), very closely associated with its laboratories, and also hosts the Doctoral School of Marine and Coastal Sciences (EDSML), a multidisciplinary school with 25  laboratories, within and outside the IUEM.