Dear SUT Members and friends – the year is flashing past and in the last week we’ve moved the HQ office to 2 John Street, London WC1N 2ES – after two years in a basement we are now in a third-floor office with natural daylight should you be passing by and want to say hello. Our new telephone number is +44 (0)20 3405 9035. The nearest tube station is still Chancery Lane, and we’re not far from Russell Square.

Since I last wrote to you SUT members have been busy hosting events, training courses and social activities including Houston’s Crawfish Boil, Perth’s meeting on the Future of Subsea Autonomy, Newcastle’s meeting on Deep Sea Exploration and a Flexible Flowlines event at our Middle East branch.

I spoke on the theme of ‘Blue Future – underwater technology and the Blue Economy’ at London and Southern England Branch’s Lunch & Learn on 12^th June, and enjoyed presenting to young future professionals at the Charles Dickens School in Southwark in July – we don’t often get a chance to speak to 6 and 7-year-olds and they really do ask some of the best questions. One young lad was interested in how electronic devices can be made waterproof for use at sea – as he had learned the hard way that tablet devices don’t last long if played with in the bath! I was really impressed by how well-briefed the youngsters were, they even asked questions about deep sea mining, and one young lady wanted to be an explorer on the oceans of Saturn’s moon Titan. Gives me real hope for the future!

I was invited to Marseilles by our friends in the Marine Technology Society who offered us a free booth in their space at the IEEE-OES Oceans 2019 conference. I couldn’t stay for more than a day, but it was good to be there, meet delegates and learn about how SUT can work with MTS and the IEEE-Oceanic Engineering Society in future years. We share much in common and face similar challenges of recruitment and retention of members, attracting investment and sponsorship, and ensuring that our members are well prepared for the challenges of this century such as the transition to renewable and low-carbon energy, developing new ocean industries like mining and deepwater aquaculture, and encouraging the next generation to choose to work in our sector when there is so much competition for their talents.

At the end of June, I briefly attended the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Assembly where SUT is a valued Observer Member, and one of the few organisations present who are able to provide an industry perspective. As a former Vice-Chair of UNESCO IOC I was warmly welcomed, and able to talk to delegates from the countries where we have branches, as well as to some from countries where we are not yet active, but would very much like to host Branches in the future. The two big stories in global ocean policy development at the moment are the forthcoming UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021-2030, and the developing new UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. SUT members will increasingly find themselves working in international waters as the search for mineral and biological resources move further offshore in future years, & the accompanying new legal structures will become part of the operational life of offshore corporations. SUT through our Policy Advisory Committee, informal contacts, and membership of the various advisory bodies will play a part in ensuring that all voices are heard when designing future legal regimes and standard operating procedures. If it’s an area that interests you, get in touch and we can see how we can use the talents within our membership to make a lasting impact.

We also supported the IMarEST ‘Engine as a Weapon VII’ workshop in London at the start of July. Modern warships use their engines to drive massive generators to produce the wattage required to drive the ship, power the electronics and as we move into an almost sci-fi world, power lasers, rail-guns and electro-magnetic catapults. It’s not a big part of SUT’s areas of interest, but we do have members working in the defence sector and as submarines become mother ships for a host of exotic autonomous and remote-controlled platforms, it promises to be an area of future growth as our world traverses a tense period in international relations.

Another interesting collaboration in recent weeks has been to work with the Nautical Archaeology Society to raise awareness of the wreck of The London, a very rare Cromwell-era warship that was lost by explosion in the Thames Estuary in 1665. Her remains are very close to the dredged channel and the valiant team of marine archaeologists and volunteers who are exploring the wreck in the narrow windows between tides would dearly love for a SUT Member with access to high-resolution seabed sub-bottom profiling equipment to be able to have a look at what lies beneath. Long-standing SUT Member Tony Taylor has been working with the Nautical Archaeology to help raise funds and awareness of the fate of the ship – see https://www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org/appeal/save-the-london – I can put you in touch with Tony and the NAS team if you are interested in helping the appeal.

Business Development Meetings

As we try and navigate SUT back into better health and growth, a team of experienced members led by Chair of Council David Saul is meeting monthly and working with me to drive initiatives to generate new membership, retain the people we already have, and explore how to raise revenue and reduce costs. At the July meeting of Council we also agreed to conduct a strategic business review to look at all aspects of the organisation, objectives, and structures of SUT so that we are fit for purpose and have appropriate systems in place to run and grow the Society. I’ll keep you informed of progress as the review proceeds, which in intended to be complete in time for the Annual General Meeting in December.

Accreditation

Work continues of having our first trial of the Professional Accreditation scheme that we are intending to license from IMarEST starting in September, and our Australian Branch is close to launching a scheme with Engineers Australia very soon too – so for the first time you will be able to be a Member of SUT and have full professional accreditation as well. For the HQ-based scheme, the first cohort will be for Chartered Marine Technologists, and we will roll out Chartered Marine Engineer and Chartered Marine Scientist as we gain experience of processing the applications. More from me very soon on this. For more detail on the existing IMarEST CMarTech registration see https://www.imarest.org/membership/membership-registration/apply-for-professional-registration/chartered-marine-technologist-cmartech – the SUT system will be very similar with no reduction in the expected level of professional achievement, we will, however, carry out our own accreditation interviews and reviews.

Alongside SUT, IMarEST are also going to license the scheme to the Marine Technology Society, so SUT and MTS will work closely together in how we train assessors, cooperate with IMarEST and maintain the highest professional standards.

Forthcoming Events & Meetings

Regularly check out https://sut.org/events/ for news on upcoming events – for instance in the next few weeks Houston will be hosting technical meetings & their annual clay shoot competition, I’ll be attending the final workshop of the BRIDGES programme to develop an autonomous vehicle optimised for supporting the deep subsea mining industry, Perth will host technical & social events, and as we move into September the Middle East Branch are hosting a meeting on flexible, umbilical & cable installation & China Branch host the 8^th SUT Technical Conference in Zhejiang. Aberdeen will be holding their popular ‘gadgets and widgets’ evening event on 18^th September. London & Southern England branch will have an evening meeting on deep sea mining, Singapore Branch have a technical meeting on the 19^th September, and the OSIG South West Geoforum will take place at the end of September at Brunel’s SS Great Britain – always a wonderful venue.

Other key events that we are involved with include Offshore Europe in Aberdeen at the start of September – the first event at the new Aberdeen P&J Live events venue next to Aberdeen airport. SUT will be at Stand 1M53. October brings the Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland’s annual science meeting in Glasgow where SUT will host the salvage and decommissioning workshop, and later in the month, the AUT 2019 Conference takes place in Perth, Australia. Evening meetings will be taking place across the branches including ‘plastics in the ocean’ at the North of England branch on 2^nd October, Salvage, and UXO in Aberdeen, and in November we get in the same week the ADIPEC event in Abu Dhabi, a Commercial UAV event we’ve been invited to attend in London, and Oceanology China in Shanghai where I will be chairing the marine autonomous systems sessions. I’ll also be speaking at IMarEST’s international conference on Marine Engineering & Technology in Oman the week before ADIPEC so plenty of opportunities to promote SUT in the Middle East coming up.

Aberdeen & Houston will be hosting Subsea Awareness Courses, which are increasing in popularity now that industry is returning to strength. We are developing new courses too for the offshore wind industry and other users – if you are interested in helping us to develop new courses, or volunteering to teach one, please get in touch.

Academic Members

The SUT has long-standing corporate members from academic & research institutions across the world. They train the next generation of young engineers, technologists, scientists, lawyers, finance experts and policy makers that we rely upon across our sector, and of course are the great knowledge creation hubs that will help us meet the challenges of feeding & providing resources & energy to 9 billion + human beings by the middle of this century. In coming newsletters I’ll start to feature our academic members in short descriptions of their institution, capabilities and how they can work with our industry members for mutual benefit. I’ve already visited universities in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, China & Norway since joining as CEO two years ago and have a reasonable amount of material to hand, but please get in touch if your university isn’t yet a Corporate Member of SUT and you’d like to be featured in a future article.

Chris Milner

I’ll finish this newsletter with an appreciation of our valued colleague and former Aberdeen Chair Chris Milner who died tragically young on 9th July following a short illness. Chris was one of those people so full of energy and positiveness that you wonder how on Earth they manage to fit so much into their day. Foremost came his family – his wife Louise and sons Nick & Joseph were at the core of his busy life and always came first. His employer was BPP-Tech & Cables where for many years Chris had been the regional manager in Aberdeen. Chris was active in many fields, & found time to be a key member of SUT’s Aberdeen Branch, serving as Chair until a couple of years ago. Chris was also an elected Member of SUT Council – a role he carried out diligently and professionally. When I became CEO in 2017 he was one of the first to contact me, welcome me into the organisation and provide help and advice any time I needed it. I last saw Chris at All Energy in Glasgow in May, where he was excited by the possibilities presented to SUT by the growth of offshore renewables, and an advocate for us setting up a new chapter in the Central Belt area. It’s hard to believe he’s gone.

Many members of the Aberdeen Branch attended a memorial event for Chris on 31^st July, where Branch Chair Daniele Petrone spoke of our high regard for Chris Milner, & Jim Mann gave a moving testimonial about Chris’s contributions to SUT and the Aberdeen subsea community. It was good to see so many SUT Members there to support Chris’s family.

Chair of London and Southern England Branch Richard Binks will be taking part in the Great North Run on 8^th September to raise money for the Brain Tumour Charity in memory of Chris – if any of our members would like to support him the link is

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/binksygreatnorthrun

I’m also planning on honouring Chris’s memory with one of our scholarships this year – he was an enthusiastic supporter of young professionals and wanted to encourage people to enter our industry.

Next Newsletter

Being UK-based there’s a tendency for me to speak mostly about what’s happening in my own back yard, so if you’re at one of our overseas branches and want me to speak more about what your branch is doing, please send me any updates you wish me to include in the next newsletter.

For my Northern hemisphere readers please enjoy what’s left of the summer, for our friends in the South winter won’t last too much longer.

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.  

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.  

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.

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 9^th 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  

I enjoyed the Subsea 2.0™ & iEPCI™ evening presentation hosted by TechnipFMC on 9^th 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  

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  

On 17^th 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 23^rd 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 28^th 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 12^th 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 4^th June 2019 [email protected]