The VALMAS project continues to progress across all research themes. In conjunction with READ-ME, stakeholder mapping has identified over 400 organisations, with ongoing analysis of roles, influence, and governance connections across oil and gas and offshore wind.
Evidence reviews on carbon and fisheries are complete, with biodiversity analysis underway. Scenario development and value lenses are being advanced to inform project outputs and engagement.
A natural capital framework is under development, alongside ecosystem modelling across multiple scales. Fieldwork preparations are progressing, including biodiversity, carbon, contaminant, and acoustic studies. Decision support tools are also in development, with stakeholder engagement continuing to play a central role.
A recent study explores whether minimally invasive skin biopsies can act as a proxy for internal mercury burdens in long-finned pilot whales.
Samples from the 2023 Isle of Lewis mass stranding showed strong, age-dependent relationships between skin mercury levels and concentrations in key organs such as liver and muscle. This highlights the potential for non-lethal monitoring of pollutant exposure in live cetaceans.
These findings contribute to wider efforts across the programme to improve marine contaminant surveillance and ecosystem health assessment under the Triple Planetary Crisis framework.
Since the last newsletter, READ‑ME researchers at the University of Plymouth have produced a Summary Information Pack on the effects of different decommissioning scenarios for offshore structures (oil and gas platforms, offshore wind turbines, associated pipelines) and shipwreck management. It includes narrative summaries, thematic statements, and supporting published literature, and will be publicly released later this year.
Team members at the University of Aberdeen and Daryl Burdon Ltd. have been developing public and stakeholder surveys on attitudes toward marine artificial structures and decommissioning. A pilot survey was recently run at SIME26; full surveys to be distributed later in the summer.
We’ve developed a series of new fact sheets to help make complex modelling insights more accessible. By combining data from a range of sources and using an ensemble of models, VALMAS explores how climate, policy and sectoral changes could affect biodiversity, carbon, fisheries and more.
These fact sheets translate that work into concise, easy-to-use summaries, giving you a clearer picture of key issues and potential impacts.
VALMAS workshop advances research and collaboration
The VALMAS consortium met at Cardiff University and online in May for a two-day workshop with partners and ‘Critical Friends’ to review progress and plan next steps. Strong progress was highlighted, including mapping over 400 stakeholders and advancing research on carbon, fisheries and biodiversity.
Interactive sessions refined the Natural Capital Framework and explored future management scenarios covering a range of aspects relating to marine artificial structures. Participants also tested emerging decision support tools (ORIES, ASPACE and StrathE2E), emphasising usability and integration. Day 2 focused on coordination, governance and strengthening stakeholder engagement through a growing community of practice.
Overall, the workshop reinforced the value of collaboration, with clear priorities to support sustainable marine management.
VALMAS was well represented at the SIME 2026 – Structures in the Marine Environment conference in Newcastle, contributing to discussions on the role of marine artificial structures in a rapidly evolving offshore energy landscape.
Team members participated across the programme, with Nicky Beaumont presenting an update on project progress, Emma McKinley leading a session on Ocean Literacy, and posters from Steve Watson, Gennadi Lessin and Paul Causon showcasing work on modelling, decision support tools and nature-inclusive design.
Project updates from Christoph Gade and Siân Rees on CoRRODE and READ-ME were also not to be missed, while other highlights included Megan Squire's excellent presentation on her immersive 3D marine growth visualisations.
A key theme throughout the conference was the need to move from being 'data rich but information poor', highlighting the importance of turning complex evidence into practical insights. This strongly aligns with VALMAS’ focus on developing tools that support informed, real-world decision-making.
VALMAS data management lessons learnt - a call for your observations
VALMAS is exploring new ways of working with data and digital twins in environmental research settings. The things we learn during the setup and execution of these data architectures could be of significant value to UKRI and the wider scientific community, with a future lessons learnt paper supporting future activities to harness these emerging technologies and enhance our scientific understanding of the Marine Artificial Structures. We would like to hear about your own experiences of working with data or digital twins - from anything that caused you a delay or wasted effort, to the things that went better than you expected.
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