During a meeting of Principal Investigators of Ocean Acidification Research projects – a number of diverse minds came together and discussed for 3 days the state of the art and the future of Ocean Acidification Research. The result is a principled framework of directions based on three key observations and lessons learned from previous similar research challenges. (1) the response of individuals does not necessarily predict the response of ecosystems, (2) the structure and function of ecosystems may respond differently to OA, and (3) much of our current research thrust is still going towards understanding individual species responses to the predicted changes in ocean carbon chemistry, whereas much needed attention to interactions between organism and ecosystems and ecosystem and ocean chemistry is still wanting.