The inaugural lecture of Prof. Dr. Stefan Partelow will put forward a shared vision for collaborative research and governance practices to advance ocean and environmental sustainability. At its core, valuing knowledge from scientists, practitioners and civil society as fluid and pluralistic can enable knowledge integration and utilization to address our most pressing local and global sustainability issues. With this framing, Prof. Dr. Partelow will outline a series of clear research objectives around ocean governance, scaling success, and deepening our understanding of human-nature relations through science and practice.