The Oceanic Platform of the Canary Islands (PLOCAN) is a Research Infrastructure co-funded by the Economic and Competitiveness Ministry of the Spanish government, the Canary Islands government and by the European Regional Development Fund. PLOCAN provides support for research, technological development and innovation in the marine and maritime sectors, available to public and private users. PLOCAN offers both onshore and offshore experimental facilities and laboratories, bringing experience in large national and EU projects. PLOCAN provides an ocean observatory for the continuous and real-time monitoring in fields such as the study of global change and ocean acidification, water-column and deep-sea ecosystems, ocean biogeochemistry and geophysics. PLOCAN also exists as: a test bed for research; a base for demonstration and operation of marine technologies; a training platform; and an innovation hub.