The National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) is an institution, specifically an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India, headquartered in Chennai. Its origin traces back to the Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management (ICMAM) Project Directorate, which was established in January 1998 by the Department of Ocean Development (DOD) to implement the World Bank-funded Environment Management Capacity Building (EMCB) programme. The NCCR was formally established in 2018, replacing the ICMAM Project Directorate, to provide a larger remit and long-term scientific knowledge for India's coastline.
The NCCR's core mechanism involves carrying out multidisciplinary research across four central domains: Marine Pollution, Coastal Processes and Hazards, Coastal Habitats and Ecosystem, and Capacity Building and Training. It fulfills this mandate using real-time monitoring buoys, remote sensing-based shoreline studies, and detailed field research. The institution provides scientific and technical support to central ministries, state governments, and pollution control boards for integrated and sustainable use of coastal resources. A key output is the National Shoreline Change Assessment Atlas, an updated version of which was released in March 2022, which revealed that 34% of the Indian coastline was vulnerable to erosion.
The NCCR's work is integral to the government's vision for the Blue Economy and the National Coastal Mission program. It connects nationally with research partners like the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). In a recent change, a new regional center was launched in Visakhapatnam in 2024 to enhance research capabilities along the Bay of Bengal.