Challenger Society Code of Conduct for Meetings
The Challenger Society and the activities that it supports provide a safe, productive, and welcoming environment for all participants. The Challenger Society welcomes a diversity of views and opinions and is committed to positive action to improve i) diversity monitoring and reporting, and ii) pipeline support, visibility and accessibility for underrepresented marine researchers and students, including but not limited to class, disability, ethnicity, gender, neurodiversity and sexuality. Our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Statement can be found at https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/EDI_Statement. Participants are encouraged to respectfully express their viewpoints, with consideration of time and space for other participants to do the same. The Challenger Society Code of Conduct for Meetings, which is guided by the AGU Meetings Code of Conduct, applies to all participants, staff, and support personnel of Challenger Society-sponsored activities, as well as recipients of Challenger Society support to participate in other meetings and activities.
The code of conduct can be found here. It includes a reporting form (linked below) in which unacceptable behaviour can be reported. Reports will be considered by Challenger Council members as outlined in this protocol.
Consequences and reporting unacceptable behaviour
If you are subject to or witness any form of unacceptable behaviour, you can discuss this with a council member in person, fill out a reporting form at https://forms.office.com/e/ezcne35yxx or email a council member (addresses can be found at https://www.challenger-society.org.uk/The_Council). Council will consider incidents and possible sanctions on a case by case basis.
If you experience or witness behaviour that constitutes an immediate or serious threat to public safety, please contact emergency services (dial 999 in U.K.)
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