The Greenwich Forum is an independent body pledged to promote public awareness of Britain's dependence on the sea. It encourages debate primarily by holding conferences, colloquia and seminars. Established in 1973, it has organised more than thirty five events, several of which have resulted in publication of the proceedings.The Greenwich Forum is limited to 40 individual members representing all aspects of the maritime/marine world, serving as individuals and giving their time freely. It is a non-profit making limited company and a registered charity. The Greenwich Maritime Institute, a centre for postgraduate teaching and research is the administrative centre for the Greenwich Forum.In its efforts to provide opportunities to increase national interest in the ever-widening range of maritime and offshore activities, the Greenwich Forum transcends the normal boundaries that exist between those individuals from business, scholarship and public affairs, as well as amongst academic disciplines and technological experts. It strives to create and strengthen informal links between all who are actively involved in the various relevant organisation, disciplines and departments either directly or peripherally - horizontally rather than vertically.It is an aim of the Greenwich Forum to stimulate awareness on the part of Governments, the public, experts in the field and decision makers in the European Union, to treat maritime activities and their problems as closely interdependent, rather than as a number of unrelated extensions of land-based activities, which often fall within the province of many different departments and agencies. The Greenwich Forum recognises the need to create a coherent framework for a maritime policy on regional and global scale, rather than an exclusively national one.