The SOLAS and IGAC Projects have a long history of co-working extending over more than 25 years.   Much has been achieved in this time with particular achievements being the invention of the term 'Anthropocene' to describe our present man-contaminated world and the Global Carbon Project which has greatly enhanced our quantitative understanding of the carbon cycle on Earth. In this talk these and other major achievements will be discussed. Looking to the future of the two projects some of the following ideas will be presented: How to integrate interdisciplinary projects such as SOLAS and IGAC going forward and, in particular, how to incorporate aspects of the social sciences to make the research relevant to society's needs; The role of clouds in climate models and especially how marine emissions affect cloud properties; Estimation of the size of the ocean sink for carbon dioxide in the future; Purposeful use of the atmosphere and ocean to attempt to modify future climate; Deposition of ozone and dust on the oceans and its effect on marine biogeochemistry; Quantification of the atmospheric route for microplastics deposition on the oceans and polar areas.