Australia Perth

June 2019 Update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

Dear Members and friends of SUT, time has flashed by since I last wrote to you so there’s quite a lot in this newsletter. You can see that we’re busy raising SUT’s profile, opening new branches and supporting our long-term members.  

Claire Cardy receiving her award at ocean business

April started with the well-attended Ocean Business event at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton. It is one of the most popular of the cycle of trade shows, conferences and exhibitions thanks to the dock-side location where exhibitors can demonstrate systems, sensors and an ever-widening variety of autonomous surface and sub-surface systems. Many people comment that it reminds them of the buzz from pre-year 2000 Oceanology International exhibitions when it was located in Brighton, helped by the evening presence of friendly hostelries just outside dock gate 4 and a rich social events list. We had our customary stand in the marquee alongside the dock, were able to interact daily with members and colleagues from sister Learned Societies and Professional Bodies, & contribute to the conference programme. I also gave talks at the careers session and had one-to-one meetings with early career technologists and students to help them seek employment opportunities and give them some ideas about where to focus their efforts.  

SUT stand at Ocean Business

It was good to see that our friend Versha Carter was thanked for her contribution to getting Ocean Business established and successful, and to our SUT Plus member Claire Cardy receiving the Society for Maritime Industries Marine Science & Technology Business Person of the Year 2019 Award – Claire is now a Director at Nortek and is making a real impact on our community.

Meetings were held by our Marine Renewable Energy Committee, members of the Defence Special Interest Group, Offshore Site Investigation and Geotechnics group and by the Panel on Underwater Robotics. With plenty of SUT members on hand we were able to hold meetings of the SUT executive committee, and engage in detailed discussions with our friends from IMarEST and the Marine Technology Society, which I shall expand upon next.

Accreditation and Professional Registration  

SUT is a Charity and a Learned Society, but is not (in UK law) a Professional Body, able to issue things such as Chartered Professional Status. In the UK, only bodies awarded a Royal Charter by the Privy Council can do that, such as the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors or Institute of Civil Engineers. Another is the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) who have for decades worked closely with SUT and even hosted our headquarters at various times. 

After several months of negotiations, we’ve reached agreement with IMarEST to conduct a trial run of acting as a body licenced by IMarEST to issue Chartered Professional Status to our own members, using the IMarEST assessment system and professional categories at first, before developing our own unique post-nominals. From September 2019 we’ll trial a group of about a dozen SUT Members who wish to become Chartered Marine Technologists, and if it’s successful we’ll role out Chartered Marine Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist in due course, before aiming to develop specialisations such as Chartered Marine Technologist (ROV) or Chartered Marine Engineer (Subsea). If you’d like to be part of that first cohort please drop me an email and I’ll bring you up to speed. Exact pricing is yet to be confirmed but we won’t be undercutting IMarEST’s own fees out of fairness to them, however it does save you the annual cost of also being an IMarEST member if you aren’t one, and you will be able to make an offset for the costs in your tax returns as a formal professional registration fee. 

You don’t have to be based in the UK to use the scheme, and it’s quite a vigorous process to ensure that you are up to the required professional standard – but by 2020 we should have the first SUT Members able to use the postnominals CMarTech on our books. It’s a big step forward for SUT, and in time will have quite an impact as we evolve new methods of continued professional development and record keeping, but it will start off small so that we can learn as we go, with support from IMarEST. 

SUT and the Marine Technology Society 

The other big news is that we’re working with the US-based Marine Technology Society towards an enhanced level of cooperation so that we can help one another in the areas where we operate, increase our collective impact rather than compete in a destructive manner, and try and avoid holding major events and conferences the same week, grow bonds by inviting members to our events and so on. Why should we do so? MTS and SUT are both 1960s-formed organisations with very similar remits, and in a crowded space for Learned Societies it makes sense to co-operate for mutual benefit. MTS are primarily based in the USA & Japan, with high levels of membership in places such as the Woods Hole and Scripps communities, whereas SUT has a broader spread of international membership, and much higher engagement from offshore industry, only significantly overlapping with MTS in Houston – so we’ve made sure that our US branch is aware of the conversations we’ve had, and is able to have their voice heard from the top down.

Steve, Ralph and Rick Spinrad of MTS

Rick Spinrad, the MTS President, is well known to me from my former life as Vice Chair of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission as he was a senior member of the US ocean science community, and has known Ralph Rayner, SUT President, for many years. Rick also intends to visit our Perth Branch and attend the AUT 2019 conference in October (https://sut.org/event/perth-aut-2019-conference/) MTS have already voted for a President Elect to succeed Rick, former US Navy officer Zdenka Willis who some of you will know from her work with the US sustained ocean observing programme and Oceanology China events. Zdenka is a keen supporter of growing a closer relationship between SUT and MTS and her eventual appointment ensures stability in our relationship for the next few years.  

Defence  

SUT now has an embryonic Defence Special Interest Group, initially chaired by Rolly Rogers. The focus is on marine autonomous systems and advanced sensors in a defence context, so for now we’re keeping it invitation-only until the Group has fully agreed the Terms of Reference and level of security clearance requirements, if any. Message me if you’re interested and would like to be a member. Initially NATO-only plus Australia and New Zealand, but this may evolve as the group matures. 

SUT Middle East  

Adrian Phillips has worked wonders in a short time getting a new SUT Branch up and running in the United Arab Emirates. The first meetings have been held in Abu Dhabi & Dubai, and the core team are already planning new events, engagement in ADIPEC and many other activities. They’re now on the SUT Website, or you can contact Adrian direct at [email protected] to find out more.  

SUT West Africa  

We’re helping the team in Lagos rebuild SUT in West Africa, and they’ve already held their first Subsea Awareness Course, & started to gain new corporate members. It’s a steep learning curve, and the branch will need assistance and patience as we see it grow and flourish. If there are experienced SUT members reading this who are very familiar with how west Africa works, and are interested in helping to grow and support the Branch, please get in touch as it’s a part of the world where we should be operating, helping to transfer knowledge and build local capacity.  

NOC Association & MASTS 

I was invited to represent SUT at the National Oceanography Centre Association meeting on 9th May, where we learned about the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, as well as the plans for NOC to enter the private sector as a not-for-profit entity. They have been long-term members of SUT and we have a good relationship with the staff, a number of whom serve on our committees and special interest groups. SUT Corporate Membership provides some valuable insight from industry to the people at NOC, and our advice and input to their future development is appreciated. On a similar front I have been invited to the Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland (MASTS) meetings, as has Moya Crawford (Chair of our International Salvage & Decommissioning Committee); we create a substantial contribution to their annual science meeting with a specialist salvage and decommissioning workshop. 

LSE evening meeting  

Attendees at the TechnipFMC meeting wearing their VR headsets

I enjoyed the Subsea 2.0™ & iEPCI™ evening presentation hosted by TechnipFMC on 9th May, very educational for people like me who don’t come from an oil and gas industry background. The use of virtual reality headsets really put you into the centre of the virtual oilfield and I learned a lot. 

All-Energy  

John Sharp with winners of the Lennard Senior Prize

I spent a couple of excellent days in Glasgow in May, visiting the facilities at Strathclyde University, and attending the All-Energy exhibition and conference where Dr John Sharp, Chair of our Marine Renewable Energy Committee, was able to award the Lennard-Senior Prize to Andrew Scott, very well deserved and a rare occasion where previous winners were also in attendance. Thanks go, as ever, to Judith Patten for her energy and enthusiasm, and to the Reed Exhibitions team who ensured another good show in Glasgow.  

It did however raise again the awareness that we need a Branch or Chapter to cover pent-up demand for SUT in the Glasgow-Edinburgh-Central Belt region, as there is much happening but it’s too far to be effectively run from Aberdeen. Definitely one for my ‘to-do’ list – volunteers to get something up and running would be appreciated. 

SUT US & Oceanology Americas 

I was really pleased to see that our US Branch have entered into an agreement with the organisers of Oceanology Americas to support the future conference series. Jan Van Smirren, supported by Zenon Medina-Cetina and the Houston staff had done a superb job with the Oceanology Americas 2019 conference in San Diego, so it’s great to see that we’ll be continuing to grow that series in 2021. Well done to all concerned. 

ACOPS reception  

Keith Broughton with Lord Hunt at the ACOPS meeting in Parliament

On 17th May Keith Broughton of LSE Branch and myself were honoured to be invited by Lord Julian Hunt to an evening reception at the House of Lords by the Advisory Committee on Protection of the Sea, ACOPS, one of the oldest ocean-related NGOs started off by the late Prime Minister Lord Callaghan back in 1953, when as a junior MP he’d noticed oil pollution staining the swimming costumes of his children when holidaying in South Wales and visiting the beach. In those days ships would routinely flush their tanks at sea and Callaghan’s efforts eventually led to the banning of that practise. His daughter, Baroness Jay, was present at the meeting. We had very good presentations from Lord Hunt, our good friend & SUT Member Dr Philomene Verlaan (a rare example of a lawyer who is also a sea-going research scientist, specialising in ocean mining) and ACOPS director Dr Youna Lyons, who is based in Singapore – so a possible future link with our Branch there. I subsequently met with Philomene and Youna the following week for a detailed marine policy discussion – SUT’s links with academia, industry and government puts us in a unique position to help inform debate and discussion on ocean stewardship, resources and future management systems. 

Aberdeen SAC  

We had another successful Subsea Awareness Course in Aberdeen, showing again that the industry is recovering and demand for placing staff on courses is rising. My thanks to Jacqui and Lisa, our Aberdeen-based staff, and to our volunteer instructors Tony Laing, John Lawson, Paul Benstead and Bill Nicholson from BP, Sean Bonner and Steve Christison of BHGE, Joao Melo, John Harris, Andrew Reilly, Darren Philp and Vicky McBain of Oceaneering, Scott Cassie, Paul Yeats, David Yule, François Avon, Steve Benzie, Craig Flockhart, Stuart Rae, Mark Main, Gordon Craig, Paul Hekelaar, Ben Mair, David Procter and everyone else involved at i-Tech 7, Dale Tikasingh and Kevin Attree at ProServ, and Hooman Haghighi, & Keith Anderson from Wood. 

Xodus reception  

On 23rd May I was invited to the launch of the refurbished offices of Xodus Group in London. I was particularly impressed to learn that they had recruited 30 young people in the last 12 months, it’s brilliant to see innovative companies encouraging new engineers, technologists and scientists into the subsea sector and taking a real interest in getting them well trained and engaged with complex projects from the start.  

ErasmusMATES – Skills for the Blue Economy 

Back into the policy space, I was invited (and paid for) to attend a meeting in Brussels on 28th May about how we train the next generation in skills and academic subjects to service the needs of the emerging blue economy in Europe and beyond. It was an opportunity to present the role of Learned Societies such as SUT to policy makers, academics and European civil servants. Regardless of ‘Brexit’, SUT is an international organisation and our members will be working all over the world as we move into a whole new realm of offshore industries, discovery and technologies in coming years.  

Coming soon 

I’ll be talking on 12th June on the theme of ‘Blue future – New technologies, new ocean industries and SUT’s role in delivering the Blue Economy as a midweek lunch and learn – register for tickets at https://sut.org/event/london-south-of-england-lunch-learn-save-the-date/ it will be good to meet members and talk about the future.  

In June I’ll also be meeting with colleagues from the Marine Biological Association and IMarEST to see how we work together more effectively, and we’ve been offered free stand space at the IEEE-MTS ocean conference in Marseilles. If anyone is in the area and would like to volunteer to ‘man the stand’, please get in touch – but time is short as it’s 17-19 June.  

For those of you interested in the defence space we are one of the Learned Society supporters of the wonderfully-named ‘Engine as a Weapon’ conference, number 8 occurs this year in July – see https://www.eaaw.org.uk/ Future naval platforms will have directed energy weapons, magnetic railguns and other features straight out of science fiction, and the young engineers and technologists in training today will deliver that capability.  

Membership renewals go out in July and this year we’ll be launching a Patrons Scheme too – I’ll send out a separate message for Members describing the scheme, its aims & objectives, and the benefits of becoming a Patron of SUT as soon as possible. 

We do still need to ensure our survival by growing the Society – so please encourage your friends and colleagues to join SUT, as individuals or as Corporate Members – we still lose more people than we gain each year as members retire from the industry and the next generation don’t join in their place. I’m hoping that launching the accreditation system mentioned at the start of this newsletter will start to bring in a new cohort of members, but the need to grow is urgent and ongoing. Bring a colleague!

Finally, after two years in Chancery Lane it’s time for a new office contract, and the best value option we’ve found is to move a few hundred metres north to John Street, WC1N, off Gray’s Inn road. For those of you who’ve visited our current office, you’ll know that it’s in a basement with no natural sunlight, and after two years in the dark my staff and I are going a bit mad, so we’ve chosen a nice space with a window and sunlight to see us through the next couple of years as we progress from where we are now to a growing Society able to offer professional registration, the beginnings of a global network of allied Societies and a key role in delivering the UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development too. It’s going to be challenging, and fun.

Steve Hall 4th June 2019 [email protected]  

SUT Baby Announcement

Congratulations to our Perth Branch Manager, Jen Maninin on the arrival of little Philippa Lily, born 14th April and weighing in at 3.15kg. Jen and Phillipa are both doing well and we are all looking forward to meeting the latest addition to the SUT family!

March 2019 Update from SUT CEO Steve Hall

 

Margaret Leinen being presented to SUT/Oceanology International Lifetime Achievement award – photographed with Ralph Rayner and Rick Spinrad

Greetings to all our members and colleagues in the wide world of Underwater Technology. I’m just back from Oceanology International Americas 2019 where our US Branch played a key role in developing & delivering excellent conference sessions, engaging with industry and ensuring a strong Learned Society presence throughout the event. Our President Professor Ralph Rayner was a guiding presence throughout the preparations for OiA19, chaired the prestigious Ocean Futures Forum and more besides. Several of the technical sessions in the conference programme were chaired by SUT Members, with me covering autonomous underwater systems & navigation. We were the Learned Society supporters of the ‘Catch the Next Wave’ event held in partnership with the Explorers Club, sponsored by the X-Prize foundation and co-supported by the Monterey Bay Aquarium & Research Institute & Sonardyne – and we were particularly honoured to be able to present, with exhibition organisers Reed Exhibitions, a Lifetime Achievement Award to Margaret Leinen, Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (for a brief bio click here)

Don Walsh speaking about the Trieste Mission to the Challenger Deep

A highlight for me was during the 50 years of Oceanology International Session, listening to Don Walsh – a very sprightly 87 – recount the mission to the bottom of the Marianas Trench as commander of the bathyscaphe ‘Trieste’ back in 1960. Inspirational stuff!

Steve with Zenon Medina-Cetina, Chair of SUT-US, & Professor Scott Glenn of Rutgers University, past recipient of the SUT Oceanography Award, at the SUT stand at Oceanology Americas

Oceanology International Americas provided a showcase of SUT’s expertise & membership within a broad range of subject areas and I’d particularly like to thank Jan Van Smirren for his work in developing the conference programme, to say thank you for the input of Dr Zenon Medina-Cetina, Christopher Curran, Andy Hill & the Houston-based committee, and to SUT’s early career members Tai Prince & Devvrat Singh Rathore for their help throughout the event. My thanks too to Reed Exhibitions for their close working relationship and support as we worked together to celebrate 50 years of Oceanology International – which started as a SUT event back in 1969. In 2020 the 25th Oceanology International will take place in London and we will once again play a key role in celebrating what our industry has achieved over half a century and more.

SUT Stand at SubSea Expo

Other events since the start of the New Year that I’d like to mention include the SUT Aberdeen Business Breakfast at the end of January, where Tony Laing and his colleagues presented an encouraging message of new growth in the North Sea sector and an opportunity to meet our members in the pleasant and snowy grounds of the Marcliffe Hotel. This was quickly followed in February by Subsea Expo where SUT had a well-attended stand at a busy exhibition and I’m pleased to say we signed up several new members, corporate and individual. There was an excellent Global Offshore Prospects ‘Lunch & Learn’ by Douglas Westwood hosted at Price Forbes in London on 12 February, and although I wasn’t able to attend them I can see that our North of England & Perth Branches have also held successful events in the last few weeks.  We look forward now to the first of 2019’s Subsea Awareness Courses in Aberdeen from 11 March, and I’ve invited to give talks this month at two high profile events – I’m the guest speaker at the AGM of Oceans Advance in St John’s, Newfoundland on 21 March & on 27 March I’ll be speaking on the role on industry in providing sustained ocean data observations at the AtlantOS Symposium at UNESCO.

Kathryn Symes speaking at the LSE Lunch & Learn on global offshore prospects

Why Canada, and why UNESCO? SUT is working with partners in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to launch our first Canadian branch this year. There’s an eager, healthy cluster of marine technology industries there, and we’ve been made very welcome by the existing community in Newfoundland to act as the first springboard to growth in Canada. SUT is an Observer Member of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, where I used to serve as Vice Chair, and as such we are one of the very few industry / non-governmental voices able to input into the development of the coming UN Ocean Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Our members are very well-placed to be able to assist governments in their efforts to better-understand the ocean environment, and to be able to use our advanced technologies, databases and real-world experience of working at and under the surface to help meet the challenges posed in ocean governance, sustainable use of resources, technology transfer, knowledge exchange and responding to sea level rise, ocean acidification and warming.

New Branch – SUT MIDDLE EAST

A big Thank You to Adrian Phillips and his supporters in the United Arab Emirates who are in the midst of setting up our very first SUT Branch in the Middle East. From an initial ‘gauging the interest’ meeting during ADIPEC late last year, things have progressed rapidly and the first two events take place on 8 April at Heriot Watt University Dubai, and on 22 April at the Petroleum Institute, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi – see the new Middle East pages on the SUT website or contact [email protected] for more details.

Kuala Lumpur – I was delighted to meet up with Ajan Das, Chair of our Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Branch, while he was in London early in February. We were able to cover lots of areas of interest, and discussed how to take forward new initiatives, the relaunch of Subsea Awareness Courses, and growth of the Branch.

Growing SUT

It’s very important that we grow SUT, and recruit more individual and corporate members. SUT Council are very focussed now on how we get our Society into a healthy long-term financial position after the challenges of recent years, and I would ask all of you to encourage your friends, colleagues and companies to join SUT if they are not already part of the family – there’s a bright future for our sector as the world transitions away from burning coal and seeks energy, minerals, knowledge, resources and defence space in the global ocean.

See you at Ocean Business 9-11 April at Southampton,

Steve Hall [email protected]

December 2018 Newsletter from SUT Chief Executive Steve Hall

Dear members and friends of SUT – it’s been a very busy last six months for me and the Headquarters team as we work hard to raise SUT’s profile within the broad underwater technology sector. I’ve spent a lot of time on the road meeting members, promoting our Society with decision makers in government and international bodies (we’re an Observer Member of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, and members of the UK government’s Marine Science Coordination Committee marine industries liaison group, the Underwater Sound Forum and Parliamentary & Science Committee for starters), interacting with academia and industry at conferences & trade shows, joining into the work of our committees and winning new friends and contacts in the sectors where we need to expand our activities to meet the challenges of a changing industry, and help provide solutions to new societal needs.

EMSEA 2018

Highlights have included presenting on how advanced marine autonomous systems can benefit the future deep-sea mining industry at the Underwater Mining Conference in Bergen in September, Chairing the Marine Autonomous Systems and Sensors workshops at Oceanology China in Qingdao, providing keynote speeches at the joint China-Brazil SUT technology conference in Beijing, and another at the European Marine Science Educator’s Association conference in Newcastle. At the start of December I was invited to present the prestigious Newth Lecture at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban – an honour for me, and to SUT, reflecting that we are taken seriously as experts in underwater technology and especially in how the technology (and SUT!) is going to evolve to help humanity meet the immense challenges that lie ahead – the transition to low-carbon societies, the replacement of internal combustion engines with electric and hydrogen vehicles, the advent of advanced robotic military systems in the underwater arena, sustainable offshore aquaculture, renewable energy, carbon capture & storage, new sensors such as eDNA, and drugs & medicines from the sea – SUT has something to say in all of these fields, and we are already adapting with new Special Interest Groups being formed. We’ll be launching a new Sensors and Instrumentation Group, and a reformed Ocean Resources Group in early 2019, and are quietly building other new links based on our accumulated knowledge of marine autonomous systems.

Steve at the conference in Bergen with BRIDGES

In addition to the conferences and workshops mentioned above, I represented SUT at many other events including the Renewables UK Manchester conference, a Defence sector event in Glasgow, outreach to the next generation at the Young Marine Biologists Summit in London, and a number of talks at schools and colleges including a splendid opportunity at Dulwich College where I was able to see Shackleton’s legendary open boat the ‘James Caird’ afterwards. Members of SUT’s Education and Training Committee are active supporters of marine education alliances in Europe, North America and via UNESCO, helping to satisfy our need to be active as educators, to be good global citizens, and ensure the continuation of our charitable status.

Steve with Adrian Phillips

I’m working with our International Committee, Council and overseas members to see where SUT might grow in the future. Former SUT Council Member Adrian Phillips has done a sterling piece of work to drive up interest in getting SUT off the ground in the Middle East – a region where, surprisingly, we’ve never had a Branch – and at the ADIPEC meeting in the UAE in November we were delighted to see a strong attendance of potential local members, so plans are moving fast now to get SUT Middle East up and running – contact Adrian at [email protected] if you would like to be part of it. Atlantic Canada is another area showing strong interest in hosting a Branch so I’ve met with Paul Ryan and Neil Bose from Memorial University, Newfoundland while they were visiting Europe to discuss the details, as well as talking to senior staff at organisations and companies based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. If it all comes together, I’m hoping to launch an Atlantic Canada Branch of SUT in Q2 2019. We’re also seeing interest from Egypt and Portugal for development further down the line, so watch this space. Throughout the second half of 2018 the SUT West Africa branch has been busy building up numbers and activities under the oversight of our International Committee and HQ staff, with a view to resuming a full range of Branch activities.

Any largely voluntary Society is only able to function through the efforts and goodwill of those who take part in the life of our global network of Branches & student chapters, and without them we would soon cease to exist. We’ve been through a period of financial hardship over the last few years, and had to trim our sails accordingly, but we are gradually emerging into sunnier times. People are starting to attend our subsea awareness courses again across the world, and as old friends retire from industry a new generation of bright, enthusiastic young women and men are taking up the challenge of keeping SUT healthy and relevant.

Our South-West England chapter

In the UK the South-West chapter of the London & Southern England branch is growing nicely, bringing new people and areas of interest to SUT from the lively cluster of science, technology and innovation centres in the Bristol-Exeter-Plymouth-Falmouth area. Their London-based colleagues are reaching out into the huge potential membership in the City who work in marine technology insurance, law and policy as well as traditional engineering and science areas, and the Branch held an excellent summer social evening on board the HQS Wellington – evidence that SUT membership is about having some fun as well as serious knowledge exchange and networking. A major challenge faced by LSE Branch is proving to be finding affordable venues for evening meetings in London – if any members have access to suitable facilities we’d very much like to hear from them, I’d far rather be using SUT funds for education, outreach and scholarships than paying high room charges for London venues. The London branch and HQ are also working with the organisers of MCE Deepwater Development to help host the 2019 meeting which takes place in London – see https://mcedd.com for more.

Steve in Beijing

In the United States the Houston Branch has rebranded as SUT-US, has opened new special interest groups, and is reaching out to the West Coast, playing a significant part in working with our good friends at Reed Exhibitions to help develop the conference session at Oceanology Americas San Diego next February (see www.oceanologyinternationalamericas.com) and they’ve also been busy planting a daughter branch in Merida, Mexico. Our US branch provide an excellent scholarship scheme too, raising considerable funds to help support students who will one day enter our industry. I was present for the awards of scholarships and SUT Fellowships in Houston in October, where I also had the chance to meet the excellent student Chapters at Rice, Houston and Texas A&M universities and meet Dr Fathi Ghorbel, chair of the Robotics & Automation Committee at Rice.

Bergen are becoming active again after a long period of quiescence, Singapore has new committee members ready to reach out to the region, Kuala Lumpur are holding a variety of events, and under Professor Frank Lim’s leadership the China Branch promises great things – I wouldn’t be surprised if in 10 years time they are the largest and most active part of SUT, though it does require some hard work over the next couple of years. Perth continue to inspire with their well-run branch, active schedule of activities, and busy group of early-career members. North of England have an enthusiastic, young member base that includes many from the renewables and mining sectors, and Aberdeen provide the solid core of UK activity through their hardworking committee and local SUT staff members. Our Rio branch needs some help as numbers have fallen off sharply there in recent years, but having met with their leadership at the SUT Joint China-Brazil workshop on Underwater Technology I’m confident that Rio will rise back up the rankings as Brazil emerges from recession.

Students at the ADIPEC meeting in the UAE

Our student members and early career professionals are the future of the Society and I’m pleased to see that the Student Chapters in the USA, and younger member groups ‘SUT Plus’ in the UK and ‘YES’ (Young Engineers and Scientists) in Australia are doing well. It’s an area we still need to develop across some parts of our international network, as not all of our Branches get fully involved with education, outreach and training yet. Whilst on the subject of training, we are actively exploring how to adapt our existing courses to better meet the needs of the renewables, mining and defence sectors, and in a major new chapter for SUT we are in detailed discussion with a potential provider about opening up access to global Professional Registration for those Members who require such accreditation – more from me on that in the New Year.

We are also considering launching a ‘patrons’ scheme in the New Year, modelled on those used by similar societies around the world – contact me directly if you would like to know more.

SUT is not a trade body, we are above all other things a marine Learned Society that exists to promote marine science and technology to the next generation, to the people already working in our sector, and to decision makers. We disseminate the things our members have learned, and the skills they have developed, through our network of meetings, conferences, other events and of course our peer-reviewed journal ‘Underwater Technology’. I’m told that the number of quality manuscripts submitted for review & publication is falling, so I would like to issue a request to our members and colleagues to consider sharing new knowledge through our journal wherever possible. It raises our profile, helps us deliver knowledge to Society at large, and as the United Nations community enters their Decade for Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (see https://en.unesco.org/ocean-decade) it helps place SUT at the heart of global ocean knowledge delivery. Our journal editor will be delighted to receive your submissions – see www.sut.org/publications/underwater-technology/ for more.

Steve presenting at the Mining conference in Bergen

As most of you will know we made a small surplus at the close of our last financial year, the first in a while, but we are still some way from being as financially healthy as we used to be. We need many more members, individual and corporate, and to continue to keep our costs as low as possible. That will mean that increasingly our publications will be electronic rather than printed, and we will be encouraging our committees and working groups to meet remotely where possible. My thanks to our staff who do an incredible job running a society with members in over 40 countries at such a low cost – it’s no small achievement. Thanks too to our Council and Committee Members, who enable SUT to function effectively by their volunteer effort.

I’d like to add a special Thank You to Peter Metcalf, who has just stood down as Chair of SUT Council – he’s helped steer us through difficult times and hard decisions. He was quite rightly awarded our Honorary Fellowship at the AGM on 3rd December, and I wish him well in his busy ‘retired’ life where Peter continues to serve as a School Governor and in other roles that will keep him fully occupied. Peter’s successor as Chair is David Saul, who I’m looking forward to working with as we take SUT forward in a complex, ever-changing world.

Finally may I take the opportunity to wish all of our Members, Fellows, friends and partners a blessed Christmas festival season, be that in the sunshine of Perth, or the snows of Norway and I very much look forward to working with you all in the New Year. I won’t get everything right, we have limited resources of time and finance, but SUT has access to boundless energy, enthusiasm and hard-won knowledge, which we will be able to harness to make the world – especially the global ocean – a better place.

Steve Hall December 2018

[email protected]