COBRA Webinar – June 2024

Challenger 150: what is it, what has it done, and what can it do for you?

Dr. Kerry Howell (University of Plymouth)

The UN Ocean Decade represents an unprecedented opportunity for the global research community to come together and direct their efforts toward transforming humanity’s relationship with the ocean and supporting a more sustainable future. The deep-sea research community has stepped up via several different programmes, each with a unique but complementary focus collectively aimed at addressing the challenges posed by the Ocean Decade. Challenger 150 is one such programme and one of the first programmes to be endorsed under the Ocean Decade. It is a global cooperative of deep-sea biological researchers who recognise that by better coordinating our research efforts and methodologies, and by broadening the science research base, we can take the big steps needed to rapidly build our understanding of the deep ocean. This seminar will introduce the programme and review what has been achieved to date, including some of the benefits felt by those who have engaged. Importantly it will look forwards outlining the programme’s current plans for the remaining six years of the Decade, how the research community can get involved (if they haven’t already!), and how the deep-sea biology community can collectively deliver the science we need for the ocean we want.