SUBSEA 7 AND THE NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE LAUNCH RESEARCH ALLIANCE TO IMPROVE
SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF GLOBAL OCEANS
Global offshore operator Subsea 7 and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) recently launched BORA Blue Ocean Research Alliance™ an exciting alliance to improve understanding of the world’s ocean and seas for a sustainable marine future. The combination of Subsea 7’s global deep-water reach, established track record in innovative marine technology and project management together with the NOC’s breadth of scientific expertise, will enable BORA Blue Ocean Research Alliance™ to bridge the gap between industry and science to support sustainable research and development. The alliance will provide researchers with access to hard-to-reach areas, as well as the sharing of open access scientific data to gain knowledge at every step of the way.
Huw Gullick, Associate Director Strategic Business Development at the NOC comments: “Subsea 7 is a global leader in the delivery of offshore projects and services in locations over the world. The alliance allows the NOC to work with them to take advantage of their global presence for our scientific research purposes. “Our launch project will see the development of an innovative sensor box for measuring essential ocean variables which can be deployed on Subsea 7’s fleet of Remote Operating Vehicles (ROVs) and vessels. The use of these sensors across Subsea 7’s fleet that are used all over the world means that the rate and scale of key data being streamed to the NOC which can be used for research purposes is unprecedented. This gives our scientists access to data rapidly, which normally would take much longer to collect from our own equipment.” Other key projects using ROV technology will involve searching for and obtaining footage of undiscovered sea creatures that inhabit remote locations and unexplored ocean depths. Subsea 7’s unique operational access to unchartered waters enables the close monitoring of different ocean characteristics which will then be analysed by scientists at the NOC. However, BORA Blue Ocean Research Alliance™ isn’t just aimed at collecting data. It will be output focussed in order
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to accelerate understanding of critical ocean systems and processes that can help tackle the big questions around sustainability and climate change. Huw explained: “Understanding our oceans is now more important than ever. The ocean is increasingly playing a pivotal role in key political decisions around climate change and this alliance gives us an opportunity to bring industry and research together to focus on providing the best understanding we can so we can make informed decision about how we work with and protect our oceans.” Emma Stephen, Director of Sustainability at Subsea 7 added: “It is the responsibility of all of us to contribute and ensure the preservation of this most valuable natural resource. Our relationship with BORA Blue Ocean Research Alliance™ supports Subsea 7’s value of sustainability, where we will use our global reach and technology to collect and share data to understand more about protecting our seas and marine ecosystems for future generations.” Both organisations are committed to ensuring that the data collected is as accessible as possible to enable engagement with the alliance as widespread as possible. “It is important that we share what we do,” said Huw. “We are in the privileged
