It’s been actively researched since 1872, and yet the deep-sea remains 95% unexplored, 75% unmapped and with 70% of its species unknown.
Small institutes, especially on islands with easy access to the deep sea, could play a major role in accelerating our understanding of the deep sea. However, major barriers to research stand in our way — usually expense, often manpower or skills, and sometimes technological or data challenges that even the best deep-sea research institutes face.
The Impossible Things Workshop seeks to bring creative thinkers from beyond deep-sea research to help us explore solutions to these challenges. With your help, perhaps the deep sea can become just that little bit more accessible.
What is the Impossible Things Workshop?
The Impossible Things Workshop is a two and a half-day event joining deep-sea scientists with people from beyond marine science to brainstorm ways to reduce the costs and increase the accessibility of deep-sea research. Working in small teams, this workshop will allow professional engineers, data scientists, entrepreneurs and backyard tinkerers to imagine and prototype as many low-cost solutions to deep-sea research challenges as (im)possible.
What will it achieve?
The goal of The Impossible Things Workshop is to share knowledge and ideas for low-cost deep-sea research in an open, collaborative way. From this brainstorming, we hope to spur innovations or new ways of work that enable more institutes to venture farther into the ocean’s depths. All ideas will be publicly shared (hopefully in a publication, with all participants as co-authors) and connections made during the workshop can help take any promising ideas to the next stage of development.
How can I learn more about the challenges being discussed?
The challenges are selected based on the hurdles that smaller institutes face in beginning a deep-sea research program. Learn more in our Deep-Sea Challenges info pack. If you’re facing a challenge in starting a deep-sea research program that you’d like us to bring up in the next workshop, please fill out our contact form! It will be a pleasure to hear from you.
(Im)practical points
This workshop, like all TWILIGHTED activities, is funded by the European Union. We are also grateful for the additional support provided by
