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WORLD OCEANS DAY
June 8th every year is World Oceans Day, and although coronavirus obviously means that there won’t be many live events this year, there…
Read moreUK Marine science update
The NOC Association is a group which represents the universities and institutions who are engaged in marine science in the UK. Its official role is to act as a link between the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the broader ocean science community in the UK, particularly when it comes to the UK’s National Capability in marine science. Most ocean scientists haven’t heard of it, but it’s a really useful forum for finding out about what’s going on in UK marine science. Its terms of reference are currently being re-written, and when there’s a bit more clarity on what it will be doing in the future, I’ll post an update here. I went along to their annual meeting yesterday to represent UCL. Lots of the topics covered affect all of us, and I’ve summarised the most relevant below.
– Helen Czerski (UCL)
NOC independence
The National Oceanography Centre is based at two sites (in Southampton and Liverpool) and is currently embedded within the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). This relationship has been under discussion for some time, and NOC will finally become legally independent within the next year. This will give it the same legal status as institutions like the Crick and the Turing Institute. NOC will continue to manage the same facilities as it does now, and so relatively little will change from a practical point of view. The benefit of the new structure is that NOC will be able to carry over money from year to year, and so build up reserves.
MASTS
MASTS is the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology in Scotland. It’s an umbrella organisation which includes all the Scottish institutions that do marine research, and there is no equivalent in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. They run workshops and provide small pots of funding, as well as providing a structure to share resources between universities. It’s worth having a look at their website.
Research cruise opportunities under CLASS
CLASS is the Climate Linked Atlantic Sector Science, and they have been funded to run a dedicated set of cruises during the next five years throughout the Atlantic Ocean. There are a range of opportunities available for PhD students and ECRs. The full list is on their website. In particular, they have space for volunteers to help with taking samples and the core CLASS activities. If you’re a PhD student and would like experience at sea, this could be for you! Applications for their next cruise close on May 31st, but there is a rolling list of opportunities over the next few years.
Marine Engineering and technical help with custom-built equipment
It’s getting harder to find the expertise to build custom-designed marine equipment, but a new scheme has just been set up that might fill that gap. The NOC has recently absorbed a group of engineers at the Liverpool site, and they are being set up as a paid-for marine engineering service called CASSIS (Coastal And Shelf Seas Instrumentation Services). There’s a draft website in development here so you can get an idea of the range of stuff they can do. So if you need a custom-built piece of kit that requires marine engineering expertise, you will be able to put money on a grant for these NOC engineers to build it for you. This is a really important step forward, especially for those of us who rarely use off-the-shelf kit.
UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development
2021-2030 has been declared the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. This is intended to galvanise a step change in our understanding of the oceans, particularly when it comes to setting up big observations projects that require international cooperation. It will turn a significant spotlight on ocean science at the top of the food chain, in international organisations and governments. However, there is no committed funding in a central pot, so anything that happens will rely on additional fundraising. At the moment the UK is thinking about what it might like to contribute but no decisions have been made yet. One important point is that this may not cover all of ocean science. The focus is on science that will make a direct contribution to the way society works, not science that is purely curiosity-driven. You find more out more at their website here.
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