Guidance

How to apply to join the UK Deep-Sea Mining (DSM) Environmental Science Network

Published 19 February 2024

This guidance is to help applicants fill out the registration form to join the Network. 

The Network page has information about the purpose of the group, ways of working and governance. This will help you to make your application.

Read the Privacy Notice for information about how your personal data is collected, used and stored. 

Question 1: Title  

Add your title.

Question 2: Full name 

Add your first name, all middle names and last names as they appear on your passport.  

If you use a different name or part of your name in the workplace, add it. For example, the name on your personal or employer website and any name you work or publish with. This helps Defra to find this information. 

Question 3: email address  

Defra will use this email address to contact you about the Network’s activities. 

Question 4: working at and/or funded by a UK-registered entity or entities 

Only UK environmental experts can be part of the Network. You must be funded by and/or employed by a UK-registered entity or entities. You can still apply if you are only part-funded or part-time employed by a UK entity or entities. You will need to provide detail on this in question 5. 

Each entity must be registered in the UK and pay taxes in the UK. Therefore, the entity or entities must be listed on Companies House or registered to HMRC for self-assessment. This includes:   

• UK higher-education institutions 
• universities 
• research institutions 
• industry 
• private companies 
• sole traders 
• consultancies 
• non-governmental organisations 
• charities 
• civil servants and government arms-length bodies 

If you respond ‘no’ to this question, the application will not be approved. 

Question 5: name of the UK-registered entity or entities 

Give the full name of each UK-registered entity you are employed and/or funded by, and give enough detail to prove this. 

For example, you can include a link to your:  

• employee page on your employer’s website or similar 
• source of funding on your funder’s website or similar 

This will make it easier to review your application. If this is not possible, then provide a contact or reference for the source of your employment or funding, if not publicly available online.  

If you are employed by and/or funded by more than one UK-registered entity or both, you must give this information for each entity. 

Question 6: academic qualifications and work experience  

Only answer ‘yes’ if you have both criteria. If you do not have both the required qualification and recent experience, your application will not be approved.  

You must have qualifications in environmental or natural or earth science which must be level 6 and above. - find guidance on qualification levels

You must also have recent experience in an area with direct or transferable relevance to the environments associated with deep-sea minerals. Recent experience means within the last 10 years. For example expertise in biological, ecological, physical, chemical, oceanographic or geological expertise, including transferable expertise within these fields, such as from shallow water or other relevant industries. Examples of potentially relevant industries are aggregates, oil and gas, sub-sea cables. This is not a complete list and other expertise may be relevant. 

Question 7: description of your qualifications and recent academic or work experience 

This information will be used to approve or disapprove your registration to the Network.

Clearly describe in detail all of your: 

• academic or equivalent qualifications in environmental, natural or earth science (level 6 or above) 
• recent academic or work experience 

Give a clear explanation of how they have direct or transferable relevance to the environments associated with deep-sea minerals. 

This section will likely be used when the Network starts to search for members by expertise. You should make sure that you include all of the ‘key terms’ that are relevant to your expertise. For example, a search could be done for: 

• hydrothermal vent  
• Environmental Impact Assessments 
• environmental thresholds 
• biological  
• geological 
• benthic ecosystems  
• biogeochemistry 
• Clarion-Clipperton Zone’  
• mapping 
• mitigation 
• decommissioning  
• resource mapping 
• ecosystem functions 

This is not a complete list and there may be other searches. 

Examples for filling out this section (guidance only): 

Example 1: 

Relevant qualification(s):  

Undergraduate degree Marine Biology, University of Plymouth (level 6).  

Masters degree Marine Biology, University of Plymouth (level 7).  

PhD Ocean and Earth Sciences, University of Southampton (level 8). 

Relevant recent academic or work experience (within past 10 years):  

Specialism in benthic disturbance experiments, with a particular interest in deep sea. Other relevant expertise in at-sea sampling, environmental baseline surveys, deep-sea equipment (including remote and autonomous vehicles), survey design, image analysis, habitat mapping, polychaete taxonomy and connectivity studies, marine spatial planning. 

Relevant experience:  

• undertook research for DSM contractors in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in nodule fields. Included environmental baseline surveys, with my focus in particular on macrofauna, in particular polychaetes. 
• attended DSM workshops, including the “Deep CCZ Biodiversity Synthesis Workshop”, and “Towards a standardized approach for Regional Environmental Management Plans in the Area”. 
• member of Deep-ocean stewardship initiative (DOSI) Minerals working group 
• published papers on DSM environmental baselines and environmental impacts

Example 2 

Relevant qualifications:  

Undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences, University of Southampton (level 6). 

Relevant recent academic or work experience (within past 10 years):  

Specialism in designing, undertaking and assessing environmental impact assessments for the UK aggregates industry. This includes environmental threshold research, development and implementation, and working on sedimentation thresholds in particular. This also includes significant at-sea experience in UK waters including deep-sea, deep-sea gear and sampling techniques and survey design that includes deep sea. 

Involved in research provided to develop environmental thresholds for UK aggregates industry, London Convention/Protocol Action Levels and OSPAR environmental quality indicators. 

Environmental impact assessments and thresholds are key areas of negotiations for deep-sea mining currently. My expertise in the UK aggregates industry could be valuable and provide lessons learned to UK research on these issues. My experience in understanding the impacts of sedimentation on UK marine fauna, and in particular on cold-water and deep-sea environments, is relevant. Also developing thresholds on sedimentation rates for industry to apply, will be valuable to similar discussions for plume management from deep-sea mining activities. 

Relevant publications or reports (where publicly available): List them or provide a link to them.  

Question 8: agreement to the terms of the Network  

All applicants must agree to the statement and act in accordance with the terms of the Network. 

Any response of ‘no’ means your application to the Network will not be approved. 

Question 9: confidential information 

Confidential in this case means not shared outside of Defra and Defra Group. 

Question 10: data protection 

You must agree to the data protection statement to be part of the Network. Any response of ‘no’ means your application will not be approved. 

Your personal data will not be shared or disclosed to any other party outside of the Defra group without your explicit consent. Read the Privacy Notice for more information. 

Defra respects your personal privacy when responding to access to information requests. We only share information when necessary to meet the statutory requirements of the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000.