CEFAS23-165 Contract for services in support of the Coastal Health Shared Outcomes Fund Programme

The aim of the Coastal Health Shared Outcomes Fund Programme is to determine a minimum but sufficiently comprehensive ongoing coastal monitoring framework that can operate routinely and country-wide after the pilot programme period, resulting in the ability to:<br/>1. Ensure government responds quickly, effectively, and robustly to adverse marine events (for example mass mortalities of marine animals and impacts of pollution and microbiological contamination effects on human health) to minimise ecological and economic damage, communicating in a consistent ‘one government’ manner to stakeholders.<br/>2. Improve our understanding of the health of the coastal ecosystem to:<br/>a)<br/>Better predict adverse events and understand multi-factorial or gradual processes to proactively protect coastal communities.<br/>b)<br/>Put in place effective management and remediation measures to improve environmental quality to reduce the likelihood of adverse events to minimise the impact to coastal communities.<br/>Achieving these objectives requires determination of which data types are necessary to better understand and predict adverse marine events, defining how these data should be collected, and how they should be analysed, curated, and made accessible. This necessitates mutual agreement of diverse government and non-government bodies and stakeholders, defining their respective roles, workflows, and how information and data are shared.<br/>Requirement:<br/>Under the Programme, The Association of IFCA has been selected to support delivery of core requirements.<br/>A new cross-government approach, building on existing data and analytical capacities, is required to enable data driven assessment of coastal systems experiencing multiple pressures, and to enable effective and timely response by government. To address these issues, three key areas of transformative change are required:<br/>1. Better awareness of the baseline data needed to understand and monitor the health status of marine ecosystems and the communities they comprise around the UK.<br/>2. Determine which organisations should be involved in collecting the necessary data as part of an ongoing coastal monitoring framework (post-pilot project) and what methodologies should be used to collect, analyse, and use the data.<br/>3. Establish a cross-government framework for responding to emergency events in a synergistic way to facilitate timely, accurate, robust, and balanced interpretation which limits and mitigates impacts to animals, humans, and the environment.