masts@st-andrews.ac.uk

Organisers: NatureScot – Sarah Cunningham, Sam McFarlane, Laura Steel and Kelly Saunders

The Scottish Government has committed to consulting on management measures for fishing activity for inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) where measures are required and are not already in place, as well as for Priority Marine Features (PMFs) most sensitive to bottom-contacting mobile fishing gear outside the MPA network. Scottish Government is aiming to hold a public consultation toward the end of 2025. NatureScot’s recent advice to support management measures for fishing activity can be found on our webpage (for more details, click here).

This workshop aims to clarify the upcoming consultation, including what is and isn’t included, and the background to it. NatureScot’s role will be discussed, including details of the advice NatureScot has provided to Scottish Government and the evidence that has underpinned this. The workshop will provide details of how to find out more about the consultation and how to get involved. Finally, there will be opportunity for questions during the session and for attendees to share their perspectives. There will also be time for a discussion around research opportunities around these proposed measures (for example, to assess management effectiveness).

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:

• To increase awareness and understanding of the upcoming consultation for management measures for fishing activity, including NatureScot’s role and the advice provided.
• To gain a better understanding of the perspectives of the MASTS community of the upcoming consultation.
• To increase engagement and involvement during the consultation from the MASTS community.
• To stimulate thinking about research opportunities these proposed measures offer.

Organiser: Prof David Lusseau, Technical University of Denmark

TotalEnergies is adding a floating wind turbine to the Culzean site, about 200 km East of Aberdeen[1]. As part of this development, an array of environmental sensors has been directedly integrated in the platform at the construction stage with a view to collect observations across trophic levels. These observations aim to understand how local biodiversity changes throughout the lifespan of a floating platform. The Culzean observatory will also be used as a living laboratory to develop best biodiversity sensing and estimation practices to be replicated at scale across the development of floating OWF.

DTU Aqua (Danish National Institute of Aquatic Resources) has been tasked to develop biodiversity data pipelines from these observations in the project OWESOME (Offshore Wind Environmental Survey Optimization for Monitoring impacts on Ecosystems). As the sensors have access to continuous power and a fiber-optic connection, Culzean has the scope to deliver synchronised high-throughput observations from all sensors. We aim to estimate essential biodiversity variables (EBV) from those observations, particularly focussing on multi-sensor observation integration.

These EBV time series will be made available to the scientific community via a portal. It is important that we get views from the MASTS community on the type of EBV they would like to see included and the temporal scale at which they should be estimated to maximise uptake of what will become a long-term monitoring time series. We would like also to discuss how these estimates could be best integrated with existing monitoring networks along the Scottish coast.

This workshop will introduce Culzean and OWESOME, including the set of sensors installed on the platform. We will then breakout in groups to discuss:

• the key essential biodiversity variables which would be of interest to the MASTS community
• how this sensing platform can best be integrated with other sensing networks around Scotland
• the temporal scales of interest to the MASTS community
• key variables of interest to the MASTS community for the Culzean area

this will be reported and fed in OWESOME and scope for collaborations will be discussed.

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:

This workshop will feed in the project OWESOME, a project led by DTU and funded by TotalEnergies of which the role is to design data pipelines to estimate changes in biodiversity throughout the lifespan of a floating wind turbine. OWESOME will also provide guidelines on set of complementary sensors need to estimate biodiversity changes at multiple temporal scales based on the set of possible sensors deployed with the floating wind turbine at Culzean.

Once the data pipelines are created by OWESOME, the data will be made available to the scientific community. This workshop aims to define:

• the key essential biodiversity variables which would be of interest to the MASTS community
• how this sensing platform can best be integrated with other sensing networks around Scotland
• the temporal scales of interest to the MASTS community
• key variables of interest to the MASTS community for the Culzean area

[1] (see Marine Directorate site for details collated as part of the consenting process)

Organiser: Prof. Paul Fernandes (Heriot-Watt University). 15 – 20 spaces.

Bottom trawling is an efficient means of capturing fish which are close to the seabed.    In the North East Atlantic, it is used to catch fish species such as cod, haddock, whiting, anglerfish, and flatfish such as plaice.  This workshop aims to draw together the evidence of the impact of trawling on the seabed, and, in particular, consider recent and forthcoming legislation on managing trawling to protect sensitive species and habitats. It follows, and draws from discussions, at the MASTS ASM session on bottom trawling, with a view to provide a summary paper on the issue.  

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:  A summary paper on bottom trawling in marine protected areas.

This workshop is free to attend and requires a separate registration to attend. Please register here and not via the normal ASM ticket page.

This workshop aims to support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) in developing and advancing their grant proposals, funding applications, and fellowship applications. By providing a structured environment with dedicated writing time and expert feedback, participants will be able to make tangible progress on their applications. The workshop will be structured as a writing retreat, with short instructional sessions followed by focused writing blocks and peer or mentor feedback.

• Participants will have the opportunity to:
• Learn about best practices for writing successful grant proposals.
• Get expert input on their ongoing funding applications.
• Participate in feedback sessions and peer review.
• Have focused, uninterrupted writing time to advance their proposals.

The session is designed to be practical and hands-on, fostering a supportive community among ECRs as they navigate the complexities of securing research funding.

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:

• Mentor support for refining and strengthening proposals.
• Completed sections or drafts of individual grant proposals and fellowship applications.
• Increased confidence in understanding the grant application process and how to respond to funder requirements.
• Foster networking and peer support for ongoing grant writing in the MASTS ECR community.
• Establishment of a collaborative network for future grant writing initiatives.

Organisers: Roseanna Wright, Charlotte Miskin-Hymas and Alice Rysiecki 

20 places available – please bring your own laptop

Data management is a critical skill that underpins the integrity, efficiency, and impact of research. It is a foundational aspect of conducting rigorous and reproducible research, making it essential for students and early career researchers to develop competence in this area. MEDIN workshops are designed to enhance attendees’ knowledge and skills in marine data management. Training will cover data management planning and tips for effective data management during a project as well as resources such as the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard, the MEDIN Data Guidelines, and controlled vocabularies. The MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard enables users to generate standardised information about their datasets and upload them to an online portal, facilitating data discovery. The MEDIN portal provides access to over 18,000 existing marine datasets, which can be used to provide context during research projects. Additionally, the MEDIN Data Guidelines offer a structured approach to collecting information about sampled data, ensuring it can be interpreted by others in the future. More information about MEDIN workshops can be found here.

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:

• Create a Data Management Plan.
• Explain how MEDIN data management practices can reduce costs and risks and provide examples of how extending the original purpose of data adds value.
• Explain the role of metadata in each step of the process data life cycle: from data collection, management, publication, to usage.
• Explain the importance of using controlled vocabularies.
• Identify relevant controlled vocabularies.
• Search controlled vocabularies for terms that accurately describe marine data content according to MEDIN standards and guidelines.
• Accurately represent geospatial data using appropriate tools and techniques.
• Define discovery metadata.
• Explain how the MEDIN discovery metadata standard is applied on the MEDIN portal.
• Use the MEDIN online metadata editor to create MEDIN-compliant discovery metadata records.
• Apply MEDIN data guidelines to create consistent datasets with comprehensive metadata, ensuring ease of sharing, understanding, and reuse.
• Explain the role of metadata in each step of the process of data collection, management, publication, and usage.
• Discuss the considerations for data reuse.

Organisers: Dr Emily Hague & Dr Carol Sparling

Please express interest in becoming involved in this Forum and attending this meeting by completing this form before 31/10/25

Organised by Dr Lois Calder and Dr Ali Budjanovcann

This one day course is for PGRs and ECRs

Developing strong leadership skills is essential for both professional growth and the ability to collaborate effectively. In this interactive workshop, we will explore the importance of emotional intelligence as a key leadership skill.

The workshop will cover what emotional intelligence (EQ) really is – how it influences our interactions, decision-making, and overall effectiveness as leaders. We will discuss why EQ is important in leadership, especially in dynamic, challenging and interdisciplinary research environments, and identify the social and emotional skills that underpin successful and emotionally intelligent leadership, such as self-awareness, empathy, stress tolerance and relationship management.  We will also look at practical ways to apply these skills to your own situations and explore strategies for ongoing personal development.

By the end of this session, you’ll have a clearer understanding of how emotional intelligence can enhance your leadership potential and positively impact your research and professional relationships.

Organiser: Prof Rob Briers

This course will introduce postgraduates, early career researchers, and anyone new to Geographical Information Systems, to the use of GIS, and specifically the Open Source QGIS program. Following an initial overview of some of the key concepts and ideas, the focus will be on hands-on practical use of GIS for common mapping and analysis tasks. The course will cover sourcing, import and display of different data sources along with a selection of the major analysis procedures and effective mapping techniques.

Please bring a laptop with QGIS preinstalled (downloadable from https://qgis.org/download/, choosing the Long Term version, rather than the Latest). Other files needed can be downloaded in advance via a link provided nearer the time.

Organiser: Dr Neil Banas

Max: 25 spaces

View workshop agenda

The MASTS Working Group on Migration and Prey Energyscapes in Changing Oceans aims to find new common ground and shared questions between movement ecologists and ocean modellers looking at the same food chains but with opposite perspectives: from top predators looking down, from lower trophic levels looking up.

There is a long tradition of efforts to relate behaviour and change in mobile marine predator populations to change in underlying climate and ocean drivers—or conversely, to translate what we know about the past and future of ocean physics and lower trophic levels into implications for migration, movement, and population resilience in fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Making these leaps across trophic levels is a perennial grand challenge, but as animal-tracking observing technology improves, as modelling methods for describing seascapes, individuals, and populations advance – and as we bring together these complementary perspectives of the oceanographic and higher predator research communities – new types of synthesis become possible.

We invite short talks from across the MASTS community addressing this theme from all directions, such as:
• Studies of population dynamics and movement (e.g. foraging, migration) of mobile predators such as fish, marine mammals and seabirds that could benefit from oceanographic insight, data, perspective, and methods;
• Conversely, studies of past and future change in physical, biogeochemical and lower-trophic level environments that could be enhanced by a movement ecologist perspective, datasets and methods to explore consequences for the higher predators ranging across them.
• New mathematical and data-science approaches to quantifying, visualising and building mechanistic understanding of the drivers of higher predator behaviour across multiple spatial, temporal and trophic levels.

The Working Group will present initial results from a pilot synthesis project on Atlantic seabirds in winter in relation to zooplankton distributions. Ample discussion time will be reserved to identify promising, unexplored lines of contact between movement ecologists, oceanographers, and mathematical modellers, and to plan an expanded field of pilot projects for the Working Group’s second year. We welcome ongoing and exploratory work on this theme as well as completed studies.

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:
• Greatly expanded and diversified engagement with the Working Group. This event is an important opportunity to set an expanded agenda for our in-person, small-group technical work in spring 2026.
• Matchmaking among community members with complementary expertise, leading to new collaborations on proposals, papers, and PhD supervision teams.

Organiser: Dr Calum Hoad, Senior Science Officer for Habitat Mapping at Project Seagrass

Drones have proliferated as a tool for high-resolution surveys of terrestrial environments, supporting habitat monitoring efforts and facilitating a wealth of scientific research. Increasingly, drones are used to survey nearshore intertidal and subtidal marine environments, for purposes such as monitoring the extent and health of seagrass meadows. However, drone surveys in nearshore marine environments can be logistically and technically more complex than terrestrial surveys. Issues such as site-access, sun-glint, water turbidity, sea surface roughness and a lack of tie-points affect both the feasibility of the survey work and the quality of the captured data. In this workshop, participants will consider the application of airborne drone surveys to a nearshore site of their choosing. We will use real-world case-studies of surveys in Orkney and Pembrokeshire to facilitate discussion and demonstrate output data quality. Together, we’ll work to understand why, where and when drone surveys are best suited for monitoring and research in nearshore marine environments.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

• Learn from case-studies of airborne drone surveys over nearshore intertidal and subtidal environments in Orkney and Pembrokeshire.
• Consider the application of an airborne drone survey to a site of their choosing.
• Discuss issues, solutions and opportunities for nearshore drone surveys.
• Form connections with other practitioners of nearshore drone survey work in Scotland.

Participant guidance:

• For participants with experience of nearshore drone surveys: This workshop will provide a space to explore challenges they have experienced, and the opportunity to identify solutions to those challenges through case-studies and dialogue with peers.
• For participants with no experience of nearshore drone surveys: This workshop will provide an understanding of key challenges and opportunities, informing future decisions around undertaking – or commissioning – nearshore drone surveys at their sites of interest.
• Please come with an example nearshore marine site in-mind. If you don’t currently work with a nearshore marine site, come with your favourite piece of coastline in-mind. The area should be approximately 1-2 km².
• Please bring a device with internet access (either phone or laptop).
• We will endeavour to make this workshop creative and participatory.

Expected Outcomes/Outputs:

• By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to decide if, when, and where to use airborne drone surveys in nearshore marine settings.
• The workshop will produce a shared list of common challenges for the use of drones in surveying nearshore marine environments, and a list of practical solutions.
• The workshop will provide the opportunity for practitioners of nearshore drone survey work in Scotland to connect with and learn from each other.