Fujian Provincial Department of Ocean and Fisheries and Fuzhou University jointly set up Fujian Maritime Culture Research Center at the end of 2012, with Dr. Su Wenjing, the professor of Fuzhou University, as the Director and the Chief Expert of the Center. In 2015, the Center was listed in the Outline of Cultural Development in Fujian Province during the 13th Five-Year Plan as "building a characteristic think tank of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road". In 2017, it was listed as new type of characteristic think tank of universities in Fujian Province by Fujian Provincial Department of Education. In 2021, it was listed as key provincial unit for think tank cultivation by the Leading Team Office for the Construction of New Think Tanks in Fujian. Its research fields include the construction of basic theories of marine culture, maritime business and development, world marine cultural exchange, cultural construction of the core area of Maritime Silk Road, and research and development of marine cultural and creative industries.