UGA Skidaway Institute faculty conduct oceanographic research across all the major marine science disciplines, and from the waters and marshes adjoining the campus to around the world.

The Skidaway Institute of Oceanography was officially created as part of OSCA in January 1968 with Thomas Jackson (formerly of Georgia Tech) as director, two co-directors, a secretary and several former workers inherited from the Roebling farm.

Governor Jimmy Carter dissolved OSCA in 1972, at which point Skidaway Institute became an independent research unit in the University System of Georgia.

Beginning in the fall of 2022, the senior class will spend the semester in residence at UGA Skidaway Institute to receive both classroom instruction and intensive, hands-on research experience.

[12] Skidaway Institute includes state-of-the-art biological, chemical, geological and physical oceanographic research laboratories as well as a number of specialized facilities: In October 2019, UGA Skidaway Institute completed the renovation and repurposing of the Roebling cattle barn into the Ocean Sciences Instructional Center, containing two state-of-the-art distance teaching classrooms and a dedicated hands-on teaching laboratory.