Controlled AI Adoption: Building on Existing Governance at the Marine Institute

Research, education and public‑sector organisations are under growing pressure to adopt artificial intelligence quickly, often in advance of regulatory certainty, skills readiness, or well‑established governance models. At the Marine Institute, this prompted a deliberate decision to prioritise control and comprehension over speed. AI is being approached not as a standalone innovation programme, but as an incremental capability built on existing organisational practice. Drawing on established work in cybersecurity awareness, data protection compliance, and data management, including structured approaches such as the Data Management Quality Management Framework (DM‑QMF), the Institute has extended familiar governance patterns to AI. This has enabled early, low‑risk use that supports research, innovation, and data-to-day productivity, while maintaining clarity and oversight. This presentation outlines how that approach has been applied in practice, from initial staff engagement through to early operational use.