The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) announce collaboration with the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). Adam Cook (Head of Evidence at the MMO) tells us a little about how the MMO and NERC will be working together.
Knowledge Exchange Fellowship
NERC advertised the opportunity for funding for a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship. The Fellowship will review current and recently completed scientific research and consider how this could be used within existing practice to further effective management of the marine environment.
The collaboration we have with NERC is really important to us all in the MMO, it will enable scientists to support the work of the evidence team by facilitating wider access to the substantial scientific research that has been carried out in the academic community and increasing its’ uptake into the work we do at the MMO.
The collaboration is a great success for the MMO and NERC have kindly endorsed our work by stating that ”the MMO, in many areas of their work, operate at the leading edge globally in terms of management of the marine area.”
Evidence needs
The fellowship is a result of direct engagement between the MMO and representatives from NERC and it is a key step in our plans to continue to strategically review the evidence needs across the whole of the MMO. More details of which are available on our MMO website.
Exciting times
This is a really exciting time to be involved in the gathering and analysis of evidence at the MMO and the practical application of marine science. I believe that collaboration in the marine science community is the key to furthering our understanding of the vast marine area that we are blessed with here in the UK and is consistent with the vision of Defra’s Chief Scientist Ian Boyd on the future delivery of evidence within Defra.
In that same spirit of increasing the impact of scientific research, NERC are currently making further research opportunities available through the The Environmental Science Impact Programme (ESIP) and we are looking into opportunities to work with academic researchers in developing submissions that can have practical application. Further information is available on the NERC website.