SMMR Annual Conference 2024

The SMMR Annual Conference will be returning to The M Shed, Bristol, for three days of interdisciplinary talks, workshops and networking, tapping into themes and progress across the whole SMMR programme!

Save the date – 14th – 16th May 2024 – and keep your eyes peeled for more details landing soon – including a call for abstracts, agenda details, and information on our 2024 speaker line-up.

Can’t wait for May? Head over to our YouTube channel to explore talks presented at last year’s event.

SMMR ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2023

The Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources Conference took place from 16th – 18th May 2023, in Bristol. Building on the success of our inaugural conference in 2022, this year’s event featured presentations, discussions, and workshops exploring the varied work underway in the SMMR programme, both from our funded project teams and across the SMMR Network.

Highlights from the conference were shared across social media under the hashtag – #SMMRConf23

SMMR THEMES

Understanding the different value systems people hold when they connect with the marine environment and how this affects their decision making, in order to inform and direct policy development. Talks in this session could describe:

1. How multiple groups of people value the marine environment and how this affects dependencies and trade-offs in their decision-making?;
2. How increasing our understanding of value systems will enable us to make recommendations on how this can be used to supplement and support natural capital accounting; and
3. What approaches and scenarios will allow us to take account of value systems that affect the success of marine management interventions.

Development and integration of modelling tools to support coastal and marine natural capital approaches and accounting. We welcome abstracts that will demonstrate how modelling tools can support evidence-based management of the UK marine environment, a system that supports multiple services. Talks should reflect the complexity of natural capital assets and flows of services; their value and importance to different economic and social sectors; the distinctions between flows of public, common and private goods; and potential for development of future financial products. We welcome talks that describe tools which will support effective marine management approaches beyond the evaluation of individual services, such as fisheries and blue carbon, towards accounting for the multiple ecosystem services and benefits. Talks should demonstrate how tools can be used for the production of relevant information at the right scales and formats to enable prioritisation for policy.
Development of interventions that support government policy to improve the marine environment for the next generation. Interventions are required to improve stewardship by those involved in both marine sectors (such as fisheries, aquaculture and renewables, but also recreation and local communities) and relevant terrestrial sectors (such as those engaged in land-use and water management). Talks in this session should describe and evaluate incentive schemes and approaches to improving the marine environment.

2022 Conference

The Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources (SMMR) first Annual Conference was held as a hybrid event from 9th – 11th May 2022.

The transdisciplinary conference brought together members of the UK marine science community, with the aim of promoting and communicating research and policy excellence. The first two days saw expert plenary speakers and contributed talks and e-posters outlining the latest research and management practices that address key topics related to the sustainable management of UK marine resources. The third day was devoted to a selection of workshops hosted by the six SMMR Funded Projects.

Highlights from the conference were shared on Twitter via the conference hashtag – #SMMRConf22.