Seascape Project Coordinator

Blue Marine Foundation is seeking a Project Coordinator to support the delivery of the Solent Seascape Project: a five-year, multi-million-pound conservation project delivered by a partnership of ten organisations. The project aims to reconnect the Solent into a functioning seascape by improving the condition, extent, and connectivity of key marine and coastal habitats using protection and restoration initiatives.

The post holder will report directly to the Solent Project Manager at Blue Marine, and work across the partnership to ensure the day-day grant management, co-ordination of the project partners, and support the delivery of the project activities. This is an incredible chance to join a highly impactful charity at the cutting edge of marine conservation, and an opportunity to support Blue Marine’s work to addresses some of the biggest challenges facing the UK’s marine environment.

Hours & contract information

Hours: Full time, Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm

Location: Flexible with some time in the Solent and some time at Somerset House, London.

Contract: 12 month fixed-term contract, with possibility of extension

Holidays: 5 weeks leave per annum plus national holidays

Title: Seascape Project Co-ordinator

Reporting to: Solent Project Manager

Salary: £30,000 - £34,000 depending on experience

Please send your CV and a letter explaining your skills and suitability for the role along with information on your salary expectations to becki@edelweisshr.co.uk

If you would like to know more or have any questions, then we’d be happy to help.

We are committed to an inclusive workplace, where there is equality of opportunity. We value diversity and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

The application deadline is 14^th March 2023

Interview dates: week commencing 20^th March 2023

About the project

The Solent is one of the most heavily used waterways in the UK. With a population of over 1.5 million, 79,000 shipping movements per year and a quarter of all the coastal marina berths in England, it is under increasing pressure from coastal squeeze, poor water quality, unsustainable fishing, recreational disturbance, and sea level rise. Sadly, this has resulted in the Solent’s internationally important marine and coastal habitats becoming diminished, degraded, and fragmented. Over 50 per cent of the area’s saltmarsh has been lost, equivalent to an estimated carbon fixing potential of around 5,000 tonnes per year. Oyster populations have declined by 95 per cent causing the collapse of the fishery, and all 650 hectares of seagrass beds are in poor condition.

The Solent Seascape Project is an ambitious venture which will bring together and build on existing restoration efforts to catalyse seascape scale recovery across the 52,200 hectares that make up the Solent. The project will better manage existing marine and coastal habitats and restore the ecosystem; reconnecting fragmented habitats, recovering populations of associated species, facilitating resilience to climate change, and demonstrating the measurable benefits to the people who live and work in the area. In addition to this, the project will also pioneer and monitor the impact of large-scale blue carbon restoration in the UK, and act as a test site for implementation and further development of blue carbon methodologies.

To deliver its aims, the partnership will:

• Work with local stakeholders and communities to develop and co-create a long-term seascape recovery plan that supports better management of existing Solent marine and coastal habitats.

• Actively restore areas of saltmarsh, seagrass, oysters, and seabird nesting sites to increase habitat extent and catalyse recovery across the wider seascape, improving ecological connectivity.

• Assess ecosystem service benefits (carbon, biodiversity, nitrates), creating an evidence base of the wider benefits of seascape restoration.

• Work with government and regulators to develop key interventions and financial mechanisms to upscale the potential for seascape restoration in the longer term.

• Empower local communities and build capacity to ignite and improve understanding of seascape processes, catalyse behavioural change, and increase involvement in seascape recovery.

Project Partners: Blue Marine Foundation, University of Portsmouth, Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Project Seagrass, Chichester Harbour Protection and Recovery of Nature (CHaPRoN), Natural England, Environment Agency, Coastal Partners, Isle of Wight Estuaries Project.

Duties and responsibilities

Partnership coordination

• Day-day grant management of the project and co-ordination of project partners to ensure activities and deliverables are achieved.  
• Organising partnership meetings such as technical working group meetings, project updates, steering committee meetings, as well as external stakeholder and community workshops and events.
• Maintaining existing partnerships and relationships with stakeholders and building new relationships to support project delivery.
• Co-ordinating project progress updates and feeding into the project steering committee on a quarterly basis, flagging areas of concern and actioning steering committee advice.
• Managing and monitoring risk registers and co-ordinating project contracts.
• Providing general day-to-day project support of project activities including active restoration fieldwork and monitoring as and when required.

Reporting

• Collating project progress information from all partners to develop and submit reports and updates for the funder(s) against deliverables.
• Liaising closely with Blue Marine’s finance team to ensure efficient deployment and tracking of project funds.

Finance

• Overseeing budget spending data for the project with support from Blue Marine’s finance team, and co-ordinate all invoicing and budget reporting for the partners.
• Coordinating the partnership fundraising committee and leading on the development of funding proposals.

Communications

• Supporting the project comms lead and project manager to create annual project reports for public viewing, that promote/highlight project successes.
• Working with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust and other partners to co-ordinate volunteer events and acting as a point of contact for volunteers wishing to be involved with the project.

Required skills and experience:

• Excellent project management skills with the ability to manage multiple resources and motivate partners.
• Experience of developing, engaging, and managing relationships with stakeholders.
• Excellent team working and inter-personal skills.
• An excellent communicator (written and verbal), with an ability to deliver accurate reporting.
• Highly organised, self-motivated, and able to work using own initiative.
• Aptitude and ability to work under pressure, prioritise tasks and meet key deadlines.
• Able to multi-task to meet key deadlines and take a flexible approach.
• High level of numeracy with the ability to track multiple budgets over time.
• A command of relevant software.

Desirable skills and experience:

• Technical knowledge of marine conservation and/or species/habitat restoration.