Currently, corals for nurseries are typically collected from the seafloor without assessing their climate resilience, which is vital in a warming ocean. The project aims to improve this process through ASSIST, a data-driven system that identifies the most resilient corals for transplantation and cultivation in nurseries. By pre-screening corals, ASSIST ensures that restoration efforts focus on thermo-tolerant species, much like a surgeon selects only healthy organs for transplants.

The project’s results will be open-source, enabling coral restoration groups worldwide to adopt this “smart selection” framework and improve the success of reef restoration globally.