Although focused on the South East, EDSnet is not exclusive and has members in other regions.

The main area it is looking at in the coming months is Tackling Spills & Incidents. The objective is to develop systems for responding to time-critical events and crises.

Other projects include setting up sensor platforms, plus imaging techniques for detection and quantification of spills.

We would print the remainder of the details, but we don’t understand the jargon. What, for example, is the ‘Integration of enhanced metocean model and observation data within spill trajectory forecasting’?

Or the ‘Development of socio-economic impact models for use within decision-support tools?’

We are quietly confident this is a desirable project and we’ll let you know more if we can get a translation into plain English.

We at BB are as keen as any to see the UK’s coasts are kept free of environmental disasters, so we wish them every success in their endeavours.

The press release ends with the statement that ‘EDS net and Marine South East are currently seeking funding from a variety of sources and programmes including: the DTI technology programme, the European Framework 7 Programme (FP7), and Research Council grants, etc. Pan-European partnerships are also being set up to provide access to funding sources.’