• The Azores is typically regarded as an oasis in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Although found at the edge of the oligotrophic North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, these islands are areas of enhanced productivity due to the presence of oceanographic features like eddies and fronts and because of the localized upwelling processes associated to islands and seamounts.  
• The complex and diverse geomorphological and oceanographic settings provide unique habitats for a wide range of marine organisms from whales, marine turtles and endemic seabirds that that use the archipelago as a feeding, mating, or breeding ground. 
• On the seafloor, the numerous seamounts and island slopes and shelves host a high diversity of deep-water corals and sponges that are key components of deep benthic communities, such as coral gardens and reefs but also sponge aggregations providing habitats for a large variety of organisms. Numerous hydrothermal vent ecosystems are found in the Azores associated with the mid-Atlantic Ridge. 
• Several areas of the Azores may fit the FAO criteria for defining Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VME) while others may be considered priority habitats in need of protection by the OSPAR Convention for the protection  and conservation of the North-East Atlantic.

There are knowledge gaps on the impacts of climate change on components of the deep-sea ecosystem, hampering the proper development of SCP approaches aimed at informing management and policy in a changing planet. ​ 

• How experimental quantifications of the impact of climate change on deep-sea organisms can better inform citizens and decision makers. 
• How SCP approaches that consider future species distribution models and climate metrics can inform the expansion and placement of the revised network of MPAs in the Azores.

• Conduct multi-stressor experiments on deep-sea octocorals to simulate the effects of climate change scenarios and simulated injuries from fishing gear to assess the cumulative impacts of climate and direct human pressures on deep-sea coral ecosystems  
• Use generated physiological performance curves to climate stressors that will be integrated in hybrid species distribution models using IPCC predictions and different scenarios of direct human pressures  
• Develop maps of pressures from human activities and climate change on marine biodiversity  
• Use future distribution of species under climate change scenarios to identify climate-resilient MPA networks.