Twenty years have passed since the first edition of the International Symposium on the Iberian Atlantic Margin (MIA15) hosted in 1994 by the University of Lisbon. It is time for analyzing the evolution of this forum during this long journey of marine scientific cooperation between the two Iberian countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Different scientific challenges need to be achieved in the near future that will require coordinated and cooperative scientific approaches due to their relation with the coastal zone and blue waters that are under the jurisdiction of both states: Portugal and Spain. Recent examples such as the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Habitats Directive highlight the need to link scientific cooperation for developing research from an interdisciplinary perspective of scientific excellence. For carrying out these different scientific tasks highly qualified and competitive human capital is available in both states, composed by young scientists that demand an opportunity for directing their efforts in these different initiatives. This vast research potential will favor the resolution of scientific challenges triggered by the intensive use of both the coastal zone and the marine environment. This may require fostering an atmosphere of trust that facilitates the integration of transnational research groups that will address these new research tasks. It is worth mentioning that this consolidated triennial MIA Symposium was created by several Portuguese and Spanish marine scientists and it must continue in order to serve as a scientific platform for launching new initiatives of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. To this end, and invoking the successful and satisfactory scientific production given in the last 20 years that the forum has demonstrated to have a thriving business, we have the pleasure of being able to make the eighth call of this scientific forum that focuses on the Iberian Atlantic coastline, covering also the Macaronesian insular areas and nearby areas (e.g. Alboran Sea). Consequently, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography in cooperation with other scientific institutions as well as different local and provincial governmental institutions announces the VIII International Symposium on the Iberian Atlantic Margin to the acronym of MIA15 that will be held in the city of Málaga between the 21st and 23th of September 2015 (Palacio de la Diputación de Málaga, c/ Avenida de los Guindos no 48. Therefore we have the pleasure to invite all interested researchers on this forum to submit their proposals for scientific and / or technical papers. We draw particular attention for all scientists interested on the Atlantic marine environment to join actively this initiative, especially, during these years that are decisive for a better development of bilateral cooperation in the field of Marine Sciences between Portugal and Spain.