The coastal environment is at the intersection of society with the world’s oceans. It is along our coasts where long-term global change often manifests as punctuated impacts on local scales. Sea level rise is leading to more frequent and more severe coastal floods, increasing water temperatures are having dramatic consequences on coastal ecosystems, and coastal communities are realizing these and other stressors as impacts on their economies, infrastructure and safety. It is in this context that federal science agencies pursue and support state-of-the-art research and seek to deliver actionable coastal science products. In this panel, hear from representatives from several federal science agencies as they discuss recent advancements and successes in coastal science. We discuss how these science advancements are meeting the challenges of global change as realized along our coastlines and consider what role federal agencies will play as we seek to build resilient coastal communities and a thriving planet.