Challenger Society for Marine Science Student Award
The Marine Science Student Award has replaced the former Tripartite Award and was first awarded in 2019. The purpose of the Award is to raise the status of Marine Science education in the UK, as well as to encourage research among undergraduates in any marine science discipline. The Society offers an annual award for undergraduate students who have demonstrated excellence in Marine Science research through final year undergraduate dissertations or projects. University departments in the UK are invited to submit suitable dissertations from final year undergraduate students, with deadlines set usually for the end of July.
Students can only be entered by the Convenor of the final year dissertation module from universities located within the UK. Only one submission will be accepted from each department and it should be of outstanding quality. Prizes are awarded after consideration by a panel drawn from the Challenger Society's Council.
Judging Criteria
Entries will be judged on the following criteria:
i) Overall excellence in the project.
ii) Originality or uniqueness of the project.
iii) Relevance to marine science.
iv) Standard of presentation.
The winning student will receive a cheque for £500. In exceptional circumstances, the Award may be shared. All winning students will receive one year's complimentary membership of the Society.
The deadline for submissions for this year is 31st July 2024. The submission should be in the form of an email submission of a nominating letter from the Convenor accompanied by a digital copy of the student's dissertation report.
Documents should be submitted to kathen@bas.ac.uk using "Challenger Society Student Award" in the email subject line.
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