Ukraine and the UK have reaffirmed their strategic partnership with the signing of a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on geological science and resource development. The agreement underscores a shared commitment to Ukraine’s long-term economic recovery while deepening bilateral ties. Amid increasing global demand for critical minerals essential for technologies such as renewable energy systems, batteries and electronics, it also signals a growing focus on the role of natural resources in strengthening economic resilience and energy security.

The MoU focuses on expanding collaboration between the geological surveys of both the UK and Ukraine in areas such as digital transformation, research and institutional capacity strengthening. By enhancing cooperation across these areas, both countries aim to improve their understanding of geological resources while fostering more effective and modern approaches to managing them.

The MoU also coincides with the presentation of Ukraine’s new Critical Minerals Strategy, which the UK helped to develop, further demonstrating its commitment to Ukraine’s long-term economic and industrial future.

The MoU represents far more than a formal partnership. At a time when global challenges demand collective action, the strengthening of scientific and technical ties between our institutions is both timely and essential. This agreement reflects our shared belief that science can be a powerful bridge between countries and our shared commitment to not only scientific excellence but also growth, resilience and long-term prosperity.

Dr Maggy Heintz, director of BGS International Geoscience

At almost 70,000 square metres, Lake Victoria is the third largest lake in the world. Over 200,000 fishers work its waters directly, sustaining a fishing economy worth over $1 billion and feeding in excess of 42 million people across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.����

BGS are part of a new project, , which will deploy three research vessels simultaneously across Kenyan, Ugandan and Tanzanian waters, in a twelve-month lake-wide campaign beginning in mid-2027. 

Led by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Association, the project aims to survey Lake Victoria to assess fish stocks, water quality, climate, land-use impacts and community livelihoods, providing concrete evidence for policy makers, business and communities to make better lake and land management decisions. 

The planned LV100 survey will replicate the first ever survey of the lake, carried out in 1927 by naturalist Michael Graham on behalf of the then British colonial administration. The original fish and data samples taken from the lake are preserved at the Natural History Museum in London and at the offices of the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). Comparing these historic specimens to those to be collected in 2027 will tell the story of 100 years of change.����

Since the 1927 survey, environmental stressors including the introduction of Nile perch, invasive plants and increasing pollution have affected the waters of Lake Victoria, and researchers aim to glean insights that will help them protect the lake from future impacts such as climate change.����

BGS will examine how land-to-lake processes in the region have evolved over time. Scientists will assess how poor land management and vegetation loss contribute to increased material entering the lake, affecting fisheries through sediment build-up and nutrient pollution that promotes invasive plant growth, limiting access for small boats and potentially limiting the rapid growth of aquaculture as an essential industry to support economic and food security in the region. 

I am delighted to be part of the Lake Victoria LV100 centenary survey. It’s a welcome decision to incorporate and consider the influence of land use and its management on the future health of Lake Victoria to sustain food and economic security for the region. The project will combine more than 50 partners across the region and internationally to undertake a multidisciplinary study to define the impacts on the Lake and use novel means to encourage decision makers to act in the best interests of the lake and those who benefit from it.

Michael Watts, Head of BGS Inorganic Geochemistry

Lake Victoria represents one of the most incredible sources of life, health and wellbeing for the people of East Africa, and I’m delighted to support this locally led initiative to ensure we understand our impacts upon it and so ensure it provides for generations to come.

Mark Haviland, Co-Director of Lake Victoria 100

The project aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — in particular SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on land), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 13 (Climate Action) and strengthens partnerships for the SDG goals through SDG 17 – as well as the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Global Biodiversity Framework and the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Total investment in the expedition is expected to be close to USD 7m. 

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Sand is the most extracted solid material on Earth (currently 50 billion tonnes annually). Rapid urbanisation, driven by large-scale migration into cities, has fuelled a growing need for sand as a building material, with demand expected to rise by 45 per cent by 2060.

Due to this rise in demand, sand mining has increased across the globe, often including unregulated and illegal operations. Extraction is now occurring faster than the rate of natural replenishment, a process that can take thousands of years. This is known as the ‘sand gap’.

While sand mining on a local scale can provide employment and  raw materials needed for development, the sheer scale of extraction in many parts of the world has considerable, cumulative, negative environmental effects if it is not carefully managed. 

Sand used for construction in many countries is often sourced from rivers and marine environments; however, sand also plays an essential role within these natural systems, supporting biodiversity and providing resilience to erosion and flooding.  The value of sand in these environments needs to be carefully balanced against its value as a material for development.

To outline this escalating risk, a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report, with contributions from BGS geoscientists, has been released. ‘’ highlights the risk posed to both on and offshore areas affected by sand mining. It also urges governments, policymakers and industry to recognise sand’s essential value, strengthen policy frameworks and apply early and coordinated interventions on sand sustainability.  The report presents 24 strategic actions that governments, industry, financial institutions and civil society can take to better safeguard sand resources.

The report, co-written by 27 experts from across the world, concludes with actionable policy measures and to support more sustainable sand management at local, regional and national levels.

This timely report and its accompanying tool highlight the global significance of sand mining while outlining the challenges and risks faced by the sector. We hope that this report will serve as a catalyst for policymakers, encouraging the development and application of more robust governance of sand mining. At the same time, the report aims to improve public understanding of the true value of sand. Ultimately, it should support the adoption of appropriate alternatives, reduce consumption and minimise the negative impacts associated with sand extraction.

Tom Bide, minerals geoscientist at BGS and report co-author.

Further reading

• Living in a world made of sand
• Good practice for sand mining

Marcus Dobbs, head of BGS Engineering Geology, has been appointed as vice-chair of the advisory group for the (CCOP). Marcus has been elected alongside the new chair of the advisory group, Philipp Schmidt-Thomé of the (GTK). The two recently attended their first CCOP steering committee meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.

The advisory group’s role is to provide strategic advice to the CCOP steering committee and technical secretariat to support the development and delivery of CCOP’s overall strategy, ensuring it meets the needs of member countries and aligns with sustainable development goals. This includes:

• enhancing the impact and communication of CCOP science
• monitoring developments and user needs in geoscience
• supporting capacity building and early career professionals
• fostering knowledge exchange and partnerships
• advising on recruitment and staff development
• securing aligned funding
• encouraging contributions from coordinating countries and cooperating organisations
• offering any additional support needed to help CCOP achieve its strategic objectives

I’m delighted to be working alongside Philipp and fellow members of the CCOP advisory group to help deliver CCOP’s new strategic plan for 2026 to 2030. Geoscience sits at the heart of humanity’s response to the challenges of sustainable development and disaster resilience, and its greatest impact is realised when nations work together across borders. Through strong intergovernmental partnerships such as CCOP, we can translate geoscientific data and knowledge into lasting social, economic and environmental benefit at a truly global scale.

Marcus Dobbs, head of engineering geology at BGS.

Critical minerals are central to modern society and the global transition to cleaner energy systems. These minerals include the rare earth elements, which are essential for electric motors and wind turbines, as well as those that underpin battery technologies such as lithium, graphite, cobalt and nickel. As demand grows, countries worldwide are seeking to better understand the distribution, quality and economic potential of their geological resources, particularly in under-explored regions.

Across the African continent, geological survey organisations (GSOs) play vital, national roles in gathering, managing and interpreting geological and mineral data. The availability of such data supports good governance, sustainable development and transparent decision making, so strengthening this capability is essential to enabling countries to fully benefit from their natural resources.

For the past three years, BGS has been working in partnership with the Geological Survey Department of Zambia (GSD) to advance their understanding of the country’s natural resources. Together, we are making better use of Zambia’s existing geological data to improve national understanding of key metals and minerals such as copper, graphite, lithium and cobalt. This collaboration is grounded in shared priorities: building national capacity, improving data accessibility and supporting long-term, sustainable development.

How GSD is supporting the Zambian government’s critical minerals ambitions

A dedicated team of GSD geologists has been working with BGS specialists to strengthen Zambia’s national capability in critical minerals. This began with the development and publication of the guide, a national reference designed to support government planning and industry engagement. Building on this guide, GSD and BGS are now working on a new, national-scale critical mineral occurrence map. Focusing on Zambia’s eleven designated critical minerals, the map integrates the country’s most up-to-date geological information, mineral occurrences, verified deposits and operational mining and processing facilities. Built from high-quality, GIS-ready datasets, updated infrastructure data and insights from recent joint field campaigns, the map represents the most detailed digital geological dataset currently available for national planning and investment promotion.

Both the guide and draft map were formally launched on 25 February 2026 and received strong support from Zambia’s mineral exploration sector, government ministries and academia, reflecting widespread recognition of the importance of the map and guide to Zambia’s mineral strategy, helping to build confidence in the sector.

Partnerships for the future

As global demand for critical minerals grows, the role of GSOs and the partnerships between them will only become more important. Such partnerships strengthen national capability by combining technical expertise, modern data practices and long-term capacity building. GSOs and the data they manage provide the authoritative, long-term scientific evidence needed to understand a country’s resources, support safe and sustainable development and guide informed decision making across government, industry and society.

Millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa rely on hand-pumped boreholes (HPBs) for their water supply, but they are often unreliable, with frequent breakdowns and long repair times. Although there have been previous attempts to understand the difficulty of access to water in rural areas and the functionality of rural water supply systems, they have typically taken ‘siloed’ approaches and focused only on the technical or social factors that influence the supplies’ performance.

A and local researchers in both Africa and the UK, shows that the failure of HPBs is not simply due to a single issue, such as a lack of water or a technical failure: it is the result of a combination of complex social, technical and physical interactions. The study provides crucial information for decision makers across governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and communities aiming to make rural water access more reliable.

The research found that the probability of any failure occurring is dominated by physical and engineering factors: a combination of water levels, the condition of the pump, aquifer yields, and borehole construction and configuration. The length of time the pump was out of action was dominated by social factors including demand, access to spare parts and financing. The project team, led by BGS, tested current HPBs and facilitated interviews and participatory mapping events with water users and managers across Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda. Combining statistical patterns of HPB failure with lived community experiences led to a new conceptual model that represents the diversity of real-world water-management arrangements.

This paper invites those working in rural water supply in sub-Saharan Africa to consider infrastructure performance through an interdisciplinary lens. These complex interactions can be understood by using frameworks like the one proposed in this study to improve rural water supply performance, which is especially important as rural water systems evolve towards more complex solar and piped technologies.

It’s hoped that understanding these complex interactions around rural water supplies will help governments, NGOs and communities make rural water access more reliable and fairer for all.

Dr Donald John MacAllister, BGS Senior Hydrogeologist the paper’s lead author

This research provides valuable insights into the interconnected drivers of water service downtime. Its findings come at a critical time as groundwater will continue to play a central role in meeting future water demand and strengthening drought resilience. Acting on these insights will be essential to enhance public and private sector support for water service provision through stronger regulation, improved planning, increased financing and enhanced service management.

Vincent Casey, WaterAid

The paper is now available online:

BGS’s director of international geoscience, Maggy Heintz, and its director of national geoscience, Jonathan Ford, visited Santiago in Chile on 30 January to take part in a signing ceremony at the Ministry of Mining led by the Minister, Aurora Williams, and the British Ambassador, Louise de Sousa. The visit also tied in with the launch of Chile’s critical minerals strategy.

Scientists from both countries will work together to produce reliable geological information essential for the sustainable management of critical mineral deposits in Chile. They will exchange cutting-edge technology and advanced methodologies to further understand and promote sustainable practices around natural resources and how such work can contribute to the responsible development of Chile’s critical minerals sector.

Following on from the signing, the BGS team travelled to Calama and San Pedro de Atacama to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between BGS and the National Institute of Lithium and Salars. This MoU will strengthen collaboration and increase hydrogeological understanding of sustainable brine management.

It is an honour to be formalising such an important strategic partnership between the UK and Chile. BGS looks forward to new, science-led collaboration between our two countries, as we explore our shared interest in sustainable mining practices and natural hazard mitigation.

Maggy Heintz, director of BGS International Geoscience

For the first time, a science team has directly documented and extensively sampled a freshened water system beneath the ocean floor off the coast of New England in the USA. This major discovery comes from the initial analyses of sediment cores recovered during the , led by Co-Chief Scientists Professor Brandon Dugan (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, USA) and Professor Rebecca Robinson (Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA.

The 872 m of core, retrieved from deep below the sea floor, is now being opened, analysed and sampled by the science team, during almost a month of intensive, collaborative work. The expedition’s scientists are working side by side during January and February 2026 to uncover new insights into the formation, evolution and significance of this newly documented, sub-seabed, freshwater system.

Five BGS staff members are part of the operational team: Jeremy Everest, Margaret Stewart, Raushan Arnhardt (expedition project managers), Mary Mowat (database manager) and Bentje Brauns (hydrogeology). Their role is to coordinate and support the science team to process the core according to IODP³ standards and protocols.

The goal of this expedition went far beyond collecting sediment cores. Scientists also set out to sample the water stored within the sediments, including from sandy layers that act as aquifers and from clay layers known as aquitards that usually keep the water in place beneath the sea floor.

Although roughly 70 per cent of Earth’s surface is covered by water, significant volumes of water also move and are stored below ground. Many coastal communities depend on land-based aquifers for their freshwater supply. What fewer people realise is that, in many parts of the world, the aquifers continue offshore and contain zones of ‘freshened’ water beneath the ocean floor. Scientists have known these offshore systems existed since 1976, but they have remained virtually unexplored until now. During the expedition, the science team successfully documented and sampled freshened water within a zone nearly 200 m thick below the sea floor.

We were excited to see that freshened water exists in multiple kinds of sediments – both marine and terrestrial. Freshened water in such different materials will help us understand the conditions that emplaced the water.

Prof Brandon Dugan, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, USA.

Further analyses, such as age models, conducted by the science team will help to find out where and especially when the water was placed here.

The cores contain sediment with a wide range of composition and ages. It was surprising to see sediment, not rocks, throughout the section. The sediment has not yet transformed into rock – I did not expect to see that and it will be an interesting component of our future work.

Prof Rebecca Robinson, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA.

After a successful coring, sampling and downhole logging campaign last summer, the BGS team is incredibly excited to be supporting the science team to begin the scientific analysis the material collected. The cores have been safely held in their plastic liners since they were drilled out of the seabed and, at the Onshore Operation in Bremen, they are being opened and split, revealing the fresh split-core surfaces for the first time.

The BGS team are contributing to the detailed sampling and analysis of the cores that, when combined with the groundwater samples taken from the borehole, will improve our understanding of the development of the New England shelf and the freshened water reservoirs underlying it. It is such a satisfying moment, after years of effort to acquire the cores, to be rewarded with new data and insights in such an important and societally relevant subject.

David McInroy, marine geoscientist, BGS.

Shedding light on similar water aquifers around the world

The approach used during IODP³-NSF Expedition 501 will not only deepen understanding of offshore freshened groundwater systems off the coast of New England, but will also shed light on similar hidden water aquifers around the world. Because many coastal regions rely on groundwater for their freshwater supply, the expedition’s initial findings are highly relevant to society. The research will also reveal how nutrients such as nitrogen cycle through continental shelf sediments and how these processes influence the abundance and diversity of microbes living in these environments.

These goals align closely with the 2050 Science Framework for Ocean Research Drilling – one of the foundations of the IODP³ scientific programme. Ultimately, the expedition’s research will help to decipher how sediments and fluids cycle through the Earth system and improve our knowledge about sea level changes and freshwater flow beneath the seabed along our coastal shelves. “The researchers will continue to work on and with the samples to decipher more – for example, to date the groundwater more accurately which is critical to advancing our knowledge,” adds Rebecca Robinson.

Background

The expedition is a joint collaboration between the International Ocean Drilling Programme (IODP³) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The cores were retrieved during offshore operations between May and August 2025. For onshore operations the science team have met at the Bremen Core Repository, at MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences of the University of Bremen (Germany). “We greatly appreciate being able to conduct this advanced research at MARUM, supported by its world-class laboratories, exceptional facilities, and dedicated staff,” adds Brandon Dugan

The cores will be archived and made accessible for further scientific research for the scientific community after a one year-moratorium period. All expedition data will be open access in the IODP³ Mission Specific Platform (MSP) data portal in PANGAEA, and resulting outcomes will be published.

International approach

Forty science team members from 13 nations (Australia; China; France; Germany; India; Italy; Japan; the Netherlands; Portugal; Sweden; Switzerland; UK; USA) are taking part in this MSP expedition that consists of two phases: offshore and onshore operations. Offshore operations took place between May and early August 2025.

The expedition is conducted by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling (ECORD) as part of IODP³, funded by IODP³ and the US National Science Foundation (NSF).

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