July 2018 – MASTS is welcomed as an associate member of PRIMaRE – The Partnership for Research in Marine Renewable Energy (PRIMaRE) is a consortium of marine renewable energy experts across higher education, research and industry which have joined together to establish a ‘network of excellence’.

MASTS is one of three UK organisations represented on the European Marine Board

• Results from the EMB MO Consultation: Perspectives on ESFRI and wider Marine Research Infrastructures. Background document and Collated results and analysis.

MASTS also has links with:

• National Oceanography Centre and the NOC Association
• Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC)
• Konsortium Deutsche Meeresforschung (KMD)- German Marine Research Consortium is made up of 16 institutions and universities of Germany in the field of marine and polar sciences as well as of coastal research. The members are part of a European and global network of such institutions. With approximately 2,200 scientists of basic and applied marine research, KDM provides comprehensive expertise to meet global challenges having to do with the sea and our environment.
• Campus Do Mar – is a project spearheaded by the University of Vigo and promoted by the three Galician universities, the Spanish Council of Scientific Research (CSIC) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). It therefore brings together socio-economic agents and marine researchers from the Galicia-Northern Portugal Euroregion, in order to harness the best possible potential and optimize the available resources. It sets out to energize a cross-border network comprised of research, teaching and technology transfer units, with a view to training the best professionals and researchers in the field of Marine Science, in its different economic and social aspects, and thus generate quality 
  research and international impact, in order to provide the industry with the best tools for competing on a global scale.
• Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Ireland.
• Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research
• University of Salento, Italy.
• European Marine Ecosystem Observatory (EMECO), a consortium of European Marine Institutes that aim to integrate marine environmental monitoring, ecosystem modelling and coastal and ocean research.
• Towards European Integrated Ocean Observation. Expert group on marine research infrastructures. Final Report. January 2013.
• Development of a framework for Mapping European Seabed Habitats (MESH)
• New Zealand Marine Sciences Society
• Australian Marine Sciences Association
• National Association of Marine Laboratories (USA)
• Marine Environmental Observation Predication and Response Network (MEOPAR, Canada)
• ERA – MarineBiotech: Funded under the FP7 ERA-NET scheme, ERA-MarineBiotech is a consortium of national funding bodies seeking complementarities between national activities to pool resources to undertake joint funding of transnational projects in the area of Marine Biotechnology

International Links

In order to internationalise the research and graduate training of MASTS a small ‘International Collaboration and Networking’ (ICN) Steering Group was established to alert and enhance the awareness amongst the MASTS community of issues of potential interest, such as:

• overseas funding sources for students on PhD, MSc and Continuous Professional Development programmes which MASTS partners and the Graduate School could offer;
• overseas fieldwork and exchange opportunities for MASTS PhD students;
• promotion of the development of international research consortia which groups of MASTS partners could lead or join in on;
• initiation of discussions with a view to forming formal links with similar national marine science and technology partnerships in other countries (such as some already being investigated in Germany, Spain and Portugal, Italy, Malaysia and Colombia);
• encourage similar national networks to be set up elsewhere on the model of MASTS (e.g. Ecuador);
• the creation of productive links with multinational regional networks such as, for example, AMLC (the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean).

The Steering Group’s recommendations help to inform the Directorate and Executive Committee in determining the activities beneficial to the aims of MASTS.  Similarly, there is a two-way flow of information between the ICN Steering Group and the Themes, Fora and Community Programmes of MASTS. 

Suggestions for new international links for MASTS to consider are welcome and should be directed to the leader of the MASTS ICN Steering Group, Professor James Mair (j.m.mair@hw.ac.uk).

SFC Scottish Research Pools

These pools are collectively coming together with our SFC-funded partners, the Innovation Centres and Interface, to intensify our efforts around interdisciplinary research and innovation to support economic recovery and societal change. Within this, MASTS will continue to facilitate collaborative research and development working across the sectors.  FIND OUT MORE

Innovation Centres – Scotland

• Fisheries Innovation & Sustainability (FIS): MASTS was also instrumental in the creation of FIS (formerly Fisheries Innovation Scotland).
• Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC). SAIC is to release the potential for growth through effective collaboration between the industry and the Scottish research community. This will include, coordinated problem solving via Priority Innovation Actions to address the major constraints to growth and development, support for new businesses and ensuring effective knowledge exchange. The resulting growth in production will bring with it investments in Scottish jobs, infrastructure and research, while underpinning food safety and security and an improved diet for the Scottish population.
• The Data Lab enables industry, public sector and world-class university researchers to innovate and develop new data science capabilities in a collaborative environment. Its core mission is to generate significant economic, social and scientific value from data.
• Read more about these and the other Innovation Centres here