Welcome to the first edition of the VALMAS quarterly newsletter
We are pleased to introduce this publication as a dedicated resource for sharing progress, developments, and insights from VALMAS, delivered as part of the wider INSITE programme.
Each issue will provide an overview of key activities, research advancements and publications, and forthcoming events, ensuring you, as our stakeholders, remain fully informed as VALMAS and other relevant projects progress.
If you know colleagues or partners who may also benefit from receiving these updates, we encourage you to share the subscription link so they can also receive future editions.
About VALMAS
VALMAS (Value of Marine Artificial Structures) is a four-year, transdisciplinary research initiative led by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and co-funded by NERC and the INSITE Programme.
The project, which began in August 2025 aims to generate robust scientific evidence on how marine artificial structures, ranging from offshore oil, gas, and wind installations to shipwrecks, affect the ocean environment, the economy, and society.
By developing natural capital frameworks, modelling future environmental scenarios, and creating decision support tools for policymakers and industry, VALMAS supports a just, nature positive, and economically efficient transition to low carbon offshore infrastructure.
In November 2025, scientists, policy advisors, and industry leaders from across the sector convened to mark the official launch of VALMAS. The three-day programme of workshops, led by Professor Nicky Beaumont of NOC and hosted at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), formally initiated the project and helped shape the strategic direction of the research while fostering cross sector collaboration. Three interactive sessions were held to inform Research Theme 1’s governance, stakeholder, and evidence mapping activities. These outputs have played an important role in guiding the next steps of the VALMAS research programme.
Join our LinkedIn community
We are pleased to share that a dedicated VALMAS LinkedIn page has been created. We encourage readers to follow it for more frequent updates and insights between our quarterly newsletters.
VALMAS is building its natural capital frameworks on the latest thinking in the Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). IPBES used a pluralistic view of the values of nature, which considers nature through the lenses of:
resources (living from nature)
place (living in nature)
as important life processes and life support systems (living with nature),
through notions of oneness and kinship (living as nature).
How can this be applied within economics, which conventionally just considers nature as a means to an end?
This new publication led by Prof. Jasper Kenter (VALMAS lead on shared values and just transitions) in the high impact journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences introduces a new relational foundation that challenges us to broaden the scope of valuing nature by extending both conventional environmental economic approaches and better integrating thinking from wider economics, such as behavioural, institutional, feminist, indigenous and post-growth models. This thinking will be integrated within VALMAS over the coming years.
Coating and Residue Release from Offshore Degraded Equipment (CoRRODE)
The University of Aberdeen has begun working on CoRRODE, an INSITE-funded project that seeks through experimentation to provide data that helps quantify degradation rate, breakdown particles dispersal and environmental risks associated with left-in-place decommissioned subsea pipelines. This will help relevant authorities to make evidence‑based decisions on whether leaving pipelines in place could be justified under UK regulatory criteria. Outputs from CoRRODE will generate robust, quantitative insights that can inform predictive modelling and environmental assessments related to pipeline degradation.
The North Sea alone contains over 40,000 kilometres of subsea pipelines installed over decades of oil and gas production. Removal of these pipelines will be energy‑intensive and costly, requiring operations that burn high amounts of fuel, resulting in large carbon footprints. However, if pipelines are to be left in place a clear understanding of any associated ecological risks is crucial.
CoRRODE will produce evidence which will be fundamental in the understanding of these environmental risks over the short, medium, and long timescales, enabling informed decision making on the most appropriate decommissioning option for pipelines of different materials.
Research to Explore Attitudes and Perceptions to Decommissioning in the Marine Environment (READ-ME)
This project brings together marine social scientists, ecologists and industry specialists to understand how people and stakeholders view the decommissioning of Marine Artificial Structures (MAS) in the North Sea, including oil and gas platforms, offshore wind farms and shipwrecks.
Using surveys, stakeholder analysis and innovative Delphi consensus methods enhanced with immersive 3D visualisations, the research explores how attitudes change under different evidence-based scenarios.
Working across leading UK universities (University of Plymouth, University of Aberdeen) consultancy (Daryl Burdon Ltd, ECAP) and industry (National Decommissioning Centre) the team will generate transparent, robust evidence to inform environmentally responsible, socially accepted and economically viable decommissioning decisions, strengthening dialogue and collaboration for sustainable marine management.
Structures in the Marine Environment (SIME) Conference
Join the INSITE Programme at the 2026 Structures in the Marine Environment (SIME) Conference, where experts will share the latest research and insights on Marine Artificial Structures.
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