This is a pre-announcement for the £5 million Value of Marine Artificial Structures (ValMAS) research programme, which is delivered in partnership with the INSITE industry consortium and The Crown Estate.
In this decade of decommissioning there is growing pressure to make nature-positive decisions for the management of marine artificial structures (MAS) that align with wider polices to achieve nature recovery and net zero targets, under the UK Marine Strategy, Environment Improvement Plan, British Energy Security Strategy (BESS), and Scottish National Marine Plan. Policy makers require a comprehensive understanding of the value of biodiversity associated with MAS to be able to weigh-up their environmental effects, both positive and negative, over their life-stages and develop cross-cutting policies that deliver the best marine environmental outcomes from the ever-increasing numbers of MAS in UK waters.
The programme will fund one large project of around £5 million that addresses ValMAS’s three objectives, and will deliver all four of its programme outcomes.
Programme objectives
The programme objectives are to:
- develop an enhanced understanding of the ecological relationships, trophic and biogeochemical dynamics, and pressures on marine life associated with MAS
- apply novel marine natural capital approaches, including ecosystem service assessment and evaluation of ecosystem benefits, to understand the environmental value of MAS and the benefits and risks to nature, economy and society over their life-cycle, from deployment to decommissioning
- accelerate the impact of robust evidence, new approaches and tools that support nature positive decision-making in decommissioning, nature recovery, and cross-industry marine management in the North Sea, including oil and gas, offshore wind, and fisheries
Programme outcomes
The outcomes of the ValMAS programme will:
- enhance understanding of the ecological, economic, and social value of MAS natural capital, in the context of other stressors and climate change, and how to express this value using a natural capital approach to support decision making
- demonstrate research advances in using the latest modelling techniques that integrate both empirical and conceptual data from a wide variety of sources to inform and support better understanding of ecological interactions, tropic dynamics, and provision of critical ecosystem services of MAS natural capital
- provide a sound, accessible and user-friendly evidence base to inform decision-making and policy solutions for managing all stages of the life cycle of MAS in a nature positive way. This will include supporting new methodologies to undertake OPRED Comparative Assessments for decommissioning that utilise the value of MAS natural capital in decision making across sectors
- enhance understanding of the natural capital value of MAS to other sectors (for example, fisheries, conservation, offshore renewables including cabling), and the role they may have to play in the net zero energy transition and meeting outcomes around marine net gain, environmental recovery targets, or nature positive operation
