September 2023

This month, PrePARED project members attended a number of conferences and workshops to inform stakeholders on project activities.

Oihane Fernandez-Betelu (University of Aberdeen) attended and presented at the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES) Annual Science Conference in Bilbao, Spain

Katherine Whyte (BioSS) and Christopher Pollock (UKCEH) presented PrePARED plans at the British Ecological Society’s Movement Ecology Conference in St Andrews.

The following project members attended the Conference on Wind energy and Wildlife impacts (CWW) 2023 in Sibenik, Croatia;

• Josesph Onoufriou (SGMD) provided a PrePARED overview poster
• Gordon Hastie (University of St. Andrews/SMRU) presented a poster on “Interactions between seals and offshore wind farm construction”
• Philippa Wright (University of St Andrews/SMRU) presented a poster on “The role of habitat and prey quality in marine mammal responses to developing offshore wind landscapes”

• Stakeholder and Network Analysis now complete with a report and communications plan delivered to the project team. The report establishes priority stakeholder groups complemented by the communications plan which outlines dissemination procedures for most effective dissemination per group.
• Quarter 3 Progress Meeting allowed the entire PrePARED Project Team to come together and share task updates, highlights, challenges and planned activity for Quarter 4.

• I was pleased to attend The Crown Estate OWEC Programme Steering Group (PSG) meeting this month where there was focussed discussion around best practice in delivering impactful research.
• Virtual attendance at the CWW23 allowed for insight into how experts from around the world are investigating the impacts and opportunities of wind energy on wildlife.
• It is also time to submit our Quarter 3 Report (July – September) to the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change programme (OWEC) with project updates. You can see the report here once complete.