The MASTS Oil and Gas Environmental Research (OGER) Forum is currently searching for its next Forum Convenor. Could this be you? Interested? Email us for more details.
The Forum engages with the oil and gas sector, regulators and academic community, together with other MASTS forums, to raise awareness of relevant marine environmental research and industry requirements. The Forum brings together the scientific community to address strategic research requirements and inform policy.
Key objectives and approaches
Key objectives include:
• The identification of key environmental research issues facing the industry and regulators in Scotland, the UK and internationally;
• Improving understanding of oil and gas operations and relevant environmental concerns within the academic community;
• Fostering a cohesive, multidisciplinary and collaborative network of scientists, regulators and industry to deliver scientifically excellent, innovative, solutions to the offshore oil and gas industry;
• Facilitating the use and sharing of marine environmental data and knowledge derived through statutory and non-statutory monitoring and research.
In order to deliver the key objectives, the Forum is:
1. Representing and promoting MASTS at government, industry and academic meetings, and providing feedback to Forum members on relevant issues as they emerge.
2. Engaging proactively with other MASTS forums – principally the Marine Renewable Energy, Marine Planning and Governance, Deep Sea, and the Technology, Platforms and Sensors forums, to ensure cohesion and collaboration on issues where industry and research interests overlap.
3. Identifying strategically important knowledge gaps which can be used as the subject of Forum led workshops or “case studies” to improve understanding, raise awareness and identify research requirements.
4. Producing position papers, using the expertise within the Forum and across related MASTS Forums. The target audience for these papers will include regulators, academics, and senior decision makers, including those involved in funding research such as the research councils and the EU.
5. Allocating funds to: 1) support dissemination; 2) fund workshops/case studies; 3) support the development of strategic position papers; 4) secure leverage on other funds – including studentships and research projects; 5) support writing retreats to encourage the production of relevant papers and research proposals.
Specific areas of interest to the forum include: 1) Decommissioning, 2) Improving data access, archiving, analysis and further acquisition, 3) Understanding and mitigating the impacts of oil and gas developments in challenging and extreme environments e.g. Arctic and deepwater provinces, and 4) the use of biological alternative to synthetic dispersants.
If you missed our “Oil and Gas Industry Briefing” webinar, then you can view it below or download presentations from Peter Hayes & Gareth Jones.
Forum Convenor: VACANCY
Deputy Forum Convenor:
Steering Group: Lea-Anne Henry, Johanne Vad & Georgios Kazanidis (Edinburgh University); Tony Gutierrez & Julia de Rezende (HW University); Alison Brand & Kate Gormley (Aberdeen University); Mark Shields (BEIS); Caroline Brown (O&GUK); Tom Wilding (SAMS); and Debbie Russell (University of St Andrews)
MASTS was founded in 2009 to be a unique collaboration between marine research organisations, government and industry.
Charity Number: SC045259
Company Number: SC485726
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