Celebrating HMS Challenger and 150 years of marine geology and oceanography
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Hundreds of marine scientists of all flavours gathered in South Kensington, London, in early September at the Royal Geographic Society and Natural History Museum to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the voyages of discovery of HMS Challenger – arguably the birth of oceanography. The ship’s name Challenger is synonymous with exploration and discovery and was also adopted by the Glomar Challenger that undertook the first heroic experiments in scientific ocean drilling from the late 1960s during the Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) as well as the Royal Research Ship RRS Challenger (1973 to 2000).
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The University of Southampton was strongly represented at Challenger 150 with membership of the scientific organising committee (Professor Rachael James), as session leads and as key note and invited speakers. Alberto Naveira Garabato, Professor of Physical Oceanography in the School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) at the University, and Challenger Medal Winner 2020, presented a conference keynote on “How small-scale turbulence drives deep ocean upwelling: A new view?” and Paul Wilson, Professor of Palaeoceanography (also SOES) discussed the use of oceanographic sedimentary records back to HMS Challenger to record aridity on our planet to answer the question “How old is the Sahara Desert”.
SMMI Director Damon Teagle, together with Challenger 150 Co-chair Richard Herrington and Rachel Mills (KCL) convened a session about the potential challenges and reality of deep-sea mining of seabed resources. Speakers in this session included researchers and experts from the International Seabed Authority, potential seabed miners such as TMC as well as expert researchers interested in understanding active seabed deposit. Read more here.
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The Solent Cluster launched to reduce emissions across the region
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Image, left to right: Matt Crocker, Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong, Anne-Marie Mountifield and Will Lochhead
The University of Southampton, Solent Local Enterprise Partnership and ExxonMobil are founding partners in The Solent Cluster, the first major decarbonisation initiative that would substantially reduce CO2 emissions from industry, transport and households across the Solent and Southern England.
The Solent Cluster, launched this week, is a cross-sector collaboration of international organisations, including manufacturers and engineering companies, regional businesses and industries, leading logistics and infrastructure operators and academic institutions, with decades of proven expertise in carbon capture and storage and hydrogen technology.
This effort could position the Solent at the centre of low carbon fuel production in the UK and make a major contribution to the country’s Net Zero ambitions by 2050. The project could capture approximately three million metric tons of CO2 every year.
SMMI member, Dr Lindsay-Marie Armstrong, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Academic Cluster Lead for the Solent Industrial Decarbonisation Cluster at the University of Southampton, said: “The Solent is recognised as one of the leading contributors of CO2 emissions with approximately 3.2 million metric tons of CO2 emissions released from energy-intensive manufacturing processes every year. To form a decarbonisation cluster that spans the public, private and higher education sectors is a monumental step forward for the region." Read more here and here.
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Autonomous technology exploring end-of-life North Sea oil fields improves marine survey sustainability
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Researchers from the University of Southampton have worked with the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) using high resolution camera-equipped autonomous underwater vehicles, to better understand end-of-life oil fields in the North Sea that could pave a more sustainable way for future marine surveys.
The mission, part of NERC INSITE’s Autonomous Techniques for infraStructure Ecological Assessment (AT-SEA) project, involved the deployment of a robot submarine, Autosub Long Range (ALR), or ‘Boaty McBoatface’, to collect vital data in areas surrounding multiple decommissioned oil and gas structures off the shore of Shetland in Scotland. The ALR captured high-quality colour images using BioCam, a novel 3D visual mapping system that was developed by researchers in Maritime Engineering.
SMMI expert, Blair Thornton, Professor of Marine Autonomy said: “Our focus was on how to monitor these types of infrastructures in more effective, environmentally friendly and scalable ways. We were able to gather high quality data that tells us previously unknown things about the marine environment using a very novel approach.”
Normally, this monitoring would be carried out using large survey vessels, which use vastly more fuel than vehicles like Boaty McBoatface. Autonomous underwater vehicles would normally be launched and recovered from a ship, like these out near the survey sites. But in the AT-SEA mission, the ALR was launched and recovered from shore in Shetland. It was operated for 21 days without using a ship to support the operations, and tracked via satellite.
Adrian Bodenmann, SMMI member and a researcher on the project, said: “Even though we were many 1000 km away in our Boldrewood offices in Southampton, we could keep track of the quality of data being gathered using algorithms embedded onboard BioCam, and also know of any risks or hazards to the vehicle mission. We worked together with the team at NOC and updated mission parameters when needed while the robot was still at the sites. It was this rapid remote awareness of the data that was the key to making the surveys a success.” Read more here.
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Southampton Engineering Students to Enter the Marine Autonomy Challenge
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SMART members(left to right): Chihiro, Flavio, Joe, Nefelie, Prateek
A group of University of Southampton engineering students will compete in the Marine Autonomy Challenge (MAC) – organised by Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) Maritime Autonomous Systems Group (MASG). The competition focuses on the development of intelligent autonomous operation for Uncrewed Surface Vehicles (USV) to map and detect ocean plastics.
SMART (Southampton University Maritime Autonomy Robotics Team) consists of 5 members, Nefelie Hemrich (3rd Year Ship Science), Flavio Gheri (3rd Year Mechanical Engineering), Chihiro Hirai (MSc Marine Engineering & Autonomy), Prateek Srivastava (MSc Marine Engineering & Autonomy) and Joe Gough (3rd Year Ship Science).
The team’s journey has been given a kick start with the SMMI sponsoring them to attend the Marine Autonomy & Technology Showcase 2022 that will be held on the waterfront campus between 8-10th November. MATS will showcase state of the art developments in the marine autonomy, with presentations, exhibitions, panel events and networking opportunities with leading figures in marine autonomy community from the research, defence and commercial sectors. Read more here.
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SMMI Experts present at Oceans22
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SMMI participated in the Oceans22 exhibition showcasing their Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) called SMARTY200. The robot was featured in the Sonardyne stand due to the close collaboration that members of the Maritime Engineering research group (Blair Thornton, Miquel Massot, Adrian Bodenmann, Jose Cappelletto, Takaki Yamada) have developed over the year with support from SMMI and the IRIS FEPS CoE. The AUV is equipped with a SprintNav Mini Inertial Navigation System (INS) and an AvTrak Nano modem, both from Sonardyne, enabling precise underwater localisation. The submarine is also equipped with a Recon Laser System (LS) from Voyis, a sister company from Sonardyne. Recon LS is an imaging payload formed by two underwater cameras, two LED strobes and an underwater laser. With all this equipment onboard, it is one of the smallest AUVs with the capability to collect underwater imagery with a millimetric resolution paired with an INS with low localisation uncertainty. This enables us to collect high-resolution, precise geo-localised underwater imagery and optical bathymetry to perform exploratory and monitoring surveys. The AUV attracted quite a lot of attention at the exhibition, and a small crowd of about 30 people gathered around us during our workshop titled "Good things come in small packages - Habitat mapping with a small AUV".
The workshop was centred around the fourteen deployments of SMARTY200 in Studland Bay, Dorset, in July and in September to monitor the endemic seagrass of the bay. The surveys were planned around ten eco-moorings, sustainable screw pile moorings funded by the Boatfolk community to avoid leisure boats from using their anchors, causing scars on the seafloor and damaging the seagrass. The data collected is going to be presented at MATS 2022 conference at the NOC, Southampton.
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NOTE: CALLS COMING SOON AND WITH NO DEADLINE, TOWARDS THE END OF THIS SECTION.
Innovate UK - Zero Emission Propulsion CR&D - DEADLINE 7 DECEMBER 2022
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation, will work with industry to invest up to £10 million in innovation projects. As part of the Future Economy Net Zero programme, this competition will focus on net zero propulsion. This programme will support the government’s drive for zero emission transport and systems as part of the net zero commitment for 2050. Your proposal must align to the scope of this competition. Read more here.
NERC - Pushing the frontiers of environmental science research - DEADLINE 17 JANUARY 2023
Apply for funding to pursue an ambitious, high-risk and high-reward project in environmental science. You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for NERC funding and at lecturer level, or equivalent. Further details here.
EPSRC - Early Career Researcher International Collaboration Grants - DEADLINE 18 JANUARY 2023 (INTENTION TO SUBMIT DEADLINE 7 DECEMBER 2022)
EPSRC wants to support early career researchers to initiate or develop new international partnerships with researchers overseas. You and your international partners may have a previous relationship, but we do not expect you to have worked together extensively. We expect the proposed collaborative project to present a balance between partnership building activities and direct research, as appropriate, considering the key objectives of the funding opportunity. The international academic project partners must also have an integral role in the proposed work. Read more here.
NO DEADLINE CALLS:
Innovate UK - Fisheries and Seafood Scheme - NO DEADLINE
This supports projects based in England that secure sustainable growth across the catching, processing and aquaculture sectors and that protect and enhance the marine environment. Further details here.
EPSRC Postdoctoral Fellowship - NO DEADLINE
Apply for a fellowship focusing on either: Energy or Mathematical Sciences. You must have either a PhD or at least four years’ experience in a relevant field by the start of your fellowship. An eligible UK research organisation must host and support you during your fellowship. Your fellowship can be up to three years long. This is prorated for part-time fellows, at a minimum of 50% FTE. The project can use one or a combination of discovery science, innovation, instrumentation and technique development or software engineering. Further details here.
NERC - International ocean discovery programme – workshop funding support scheme - NO DEADLINE
This supports UK scientists in the organisation of, or participation in, IODP-related workshops, sandpits, training, outreach or other events. Eligible workshops must make use of IODP samples, data or results, or involve planning for the collection of such materials. Further details here.
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23-25 January 2023 - Maritime Week Africa
In January 2023, on its 14th anniversary, Maritime Week Africa will return to Cape Town, South Africa, to deliver enlightened debate on the key issues in the marine fuels sector and wider shipping industry in an African context. The audience will hear expert views and opinions from bunker suppliers and buyers, traders and brokers, fuel testing agencies, regulators, maritime lawyers, and shipping analysts. Read more here.
16-17 February 2023 - Wind Propulsion Conference - London
The current use of alternative fuels and renewable energy sources within the shipping industry is still relatively scarce. Growing environmental legislation and concerns are driving the need to develop and apply innovative alternative power and propulsion technology for ships. Now, industry players are increasingly putting a modern spin on one of the oldest concepts in shipping: harnessing the power of wind for ship propulsion. Call for abstracts deadline: 30 November 2022. Read more here.
21-23 February 2023 - Subsea Expo 2023 - Aberdeen
The world's largest annual subsea exhibition and conference returns to Aberdeen at P&J Live, 21 - 23 February 2023, hosted by Global Underwater Hub. Read more here.
15 March 2023 - International Conference on Maritime Law and Logistics - London
International Conference on Maritime Law and Logistics aims to bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and research scholars to exchange and share their experiences and research results on all aspects of Maritime Law and Logistics. It also provides a premier interdisciplinary platform for researchers, practitioners and educators to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, and concerns as well as practical challenges encountered and solutions adopted in the fields of Maritime Law and Logistics. Read more here.
16-17 May 2023 - Smart Digital Ports of the Future - Rotterdam, Netherlands
This year’s event showcased the technologies that are transforming the way ports do business – from discussions about standardisation and data sharing, to technical case studies from the most advanced ports, on how they are unpacking the potential of emerging technologies such as AI, Digital Twin and IoT applications and many more. Read more here.
13-15 June 2023 - Seawork - Southampton
Seawork is a ‘one stop shop’ providing access to the commercial marine and workboat business. Read more here.
12-14 September 2023 - SUT: 9th International SUT OSIG Conference “Innovative Geotechnologies for Energy Transition” - London
Read more here.
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