Oban is a beautiful coastal location, but as a tourist destination accommodation gets booked up very quickly. If you are interested in attending, it is advised that you book accommodation as soon as you can. Accommodation options can be found on the conference website: https://challenger2024.co.uk
The hashtag for the conference is #challenger2024.
We are pleased to announce that abstract submission is now open for the Challenger 2024 conference which will be held in Oban from 2nd -6th September 2024. The abstract submission deadline is the 30th April. Please find all the information about abstract submission and details of the conference on the Challenger 2024 website.
To help with your planning, here is the outline of events for the week:
Monday 2nd Sept - Registration and ice-breaker
3-5th Sept - Talks and posters
Evening of Thursday 5th Sept - Dinner, prizes and Ceilidh
Friday 6th Sept - Special interest group meetings
Keep your diaries free and please find further information at https://www.sams.ac.uk/challenger2024/
A guidance document with advice on how to create effective and clear posters and presentations can be found here.
2024 Challenger Society Conference
Presidents’ Art and Photography Prize
For the 2024 competition, in a new departure, members are invited to submit all kinds of images (paintings, drawings, collages ...) as well as photographs. We are looking for images relating to marine science or the ocean that are beautiful, impressive, evocative, amusing, quirky or entertaining. The winning image will earn its creator a prize of £100. The winner will be decided by the outgoing President and the President Elect.
You may submit up to three images (each image has a 100MB size limit). For more information and to submit your images(s) see: https://forms.gle/pTjwLMzYXjWoSpKr9
For each image, please provide a title, and a brief explanation of the context. Entries must arrive by 30 August. Images should not have been created for commercial purposes, or have received any previous award.
Photographic images should not have been significantly altered digitally (e.g. using Photoshop) or created with AI. They need to be at sufficiently high resolution to look good when printed, not just on screen. This means that the file size should be of the order of 1 Mb or more, not tens of kb. Images may be used in future publications of the Society, with the owner’s permission.
NB. The competition is only open to members of the Society.
Winners of the President's Photograph Competition can be viewed here.
Latest News
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.
THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?
The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.
NOC Association AGM 2025
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk