Annual Knowledge Exchange Meeting (AKEM)
This month the PrePARED Team hosted our second AKEM at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.
The AKEM hosted ~100 key stakeholders to provide research updates and facilitate discussion around transferability of outputs, the impact of external factors such as the marine heatwave and avian flu, and the planning and consenting of offshore wind.
PrePARED Team members presented project activity updates as follows:
- Foodscapes and how the PrePARED project will integrate Baited Remote Underwater Video data with bomb calorimetry to improve understanding of the value of offshore wind farms
- Forth and Tay fish and seabird data collection, analyses and how these will feed into Environmental Impact Assessment tools such as SeabORD
- Responses of marine mammals to piling noise and PrePARED’s work toward addressing uncertainty in dose-response studies
In addition to project updates we also discussed the impact of external effects and the potential to incorporate shock events into assessment tools before moving on to transferability in the evidence base, presenting work completed by PrePARED team on similarity assessments of OWFs within UK marine habitats and encouraging open discussion with attendees on their views for transferability.
Finally we welcomed Policy and Consenting colleagues to discuss Offshore Wind Farm development, the challenges within the consenting process and facilitated a panel discussion on stakeholder views.
A key element of the AKEM was an interactive session on monitoring technology used within the PrePARED project.
Attendees had the opportunity to view a range of equipment including;
- Acoustic Release Canister
- Baited Remote Underwater Video, CPOD (for detecting echolocation clicks)
- SoundTrap (for recording broadband noise and animal vocalisations)
- Bomb calorimetry equipment (for forming energy estimations)
- Seal telemetry tags
- Shiny app of spatial modelling and seabird tracking visualisations.
Finally, the day ended with an evening reception at Brewdog Doghouse in Edinburgh which allowed for informal discussion between the project team and key stakeholders.
On Day 2 of the event, the Project Team and Project Advisory Group met to reflect on the event and feedback received, discuss project activity for the upcoming year and consider the dissemination of evidence.
We thank all those who attended the event and look forward to hosting our next AKEM in 2025!
