Discussion groups provided by new marine on board ship (8)
I believe the answer is:
seminars
'discussion groups' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both groups as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'new marine on board ship' is the wordplay.
'new' indicates anagramming the letters.
'on board' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are taken on board).
'ship' becomes 'ss' (prefix in ship names eg SS Great Britain).
'marine' with letters rearranged gives 'eminar'.
'eminar' inserted within 'ss' is 'SEMINARS'.
'provided by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for seminars that I've seen before include "classes" , "discussions are academic" , "workshops" .)