## **The Deep-Sea Biology Society**
**Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023**
**Registered Charity Number 1173699**
## **The Deep-Sea Biology Society Content of the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2023**
|Page||
|---|---|
|Report of the Trustees|1 to 8|
|Independent Examiner's Report|9|
|Receipts and Payments Accounts|10 to 11|
## Trustees Annual Report
Covering the period 1 Jan 2023 - 31 December 2023
## Section A Reference and administration details
**Charity Name:** Deep-Sea Biology Society **Also known as:** DSBS or DSB Soc
## **Registered charity number:** 1173699
**Principal address:** 49 Station Rd, Polegate, East Sussex, BN26 6EA, UK
## **Trustees:**
|||||
|---|---|---|---|
|**Name**|**Office**|**Date Appointed***|
**Appointing body**|
||||
|
|Michelle Taylor|President|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Neus Campanyà-
Llovet|Treasurer|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Julia Sigwart|Awards|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Alexis Weinnig|Secretary|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Erin Easton|Membership|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Franck
Lejzerowicz|Communications|March 2022|DSBS Members|
|Erik Cordes|Development|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Pierre Methou|Early Career|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Alycia Jane Smith|Diversity|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Sofia Graça
Aranha Carvalho
Ramos|Non-executive|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Katharine Bigham|Student affairs|October 2021|DSBS Members|
|Sheena Talma|Non-executive|October 2021|DSBS Members|
*Note: The appointment date is set to the date of charity registration. The appointments to the unregistered society occurred by membership vote prior to the official registration.
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
1
## **Previous Trustees:**
A non-executive trustee, Bhavani Narayanaswamy, appointed in 2021 left in 2023.
## **Names & Address of advisors:**
Argents Chartered Accountants, 15 Palace St, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 1RT, UK.
## Section B - Structure, governance, management
## **Type of governing document:** Constitution
## **How the charity is constituted:** CIO - Association
**Trustee selection method:** Election by members on 3-year cycle coincident with the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium.
## **Additional governance issues:**
## _Trustees meetings_
Trustees manage society business by means of regular meetings conducted via video calling. These meetings are minuted by the Secretary. The trustees held five meetings in 2023 and the Annual General Meeting. In an effort to include all trustees, who are located in a variety of countries, we are continuing to implement a dual-meeting strategy, where the meeting is repeated on the same or consecutive days during different time periods to allow trustees from different time zones to participate. The trustees have a dedicated website on the Slack platform to send private messages to all trustees concerning society business.
## _Risks_
A major risk to the society is a reduction of income due to a drop in membership numbers. We try to mitigate this risk by providing members with incentives to maintain memberships, these include: ability to apply for grants and awards, provide discounts to scientific conferences, regular seminar series and keeping members updated about the society’s activities.
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
2
## _Networks_
The society continues its relationship with DOSI – Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative for scientific investigation of deep-sea ecosystems - which has a remit to communicate deep-sea information to the community. We are continuing to assist DOSI with the production of the Deep-Sea Life Newsletter. Two issues were produced in 2023; one in January, and another in August. Furthermore, the society is now contributing to the EU-funded REDRESS project (Restoration of deep-sea habitats to rebuild European Seas, https://doi.org/10.3030/101135492) helping with the dissemination of its products throughout its full duration (four years).
## Section C - Objectives and Activities
## **Summary of the objectives of the charity set out in its governing document:**
We are a scientific society that exists to enable the exchange of information on deep-sea biology to all those who are interested. Our vision is to advance knowledge and awareness of deep-sea ecosystems by promoting and disseminating deep-sea research to both scientific and public audiences, to foster the next generation of deep-sea biologists and to promote demographic diversity in the study of deep-sea biology.
## **Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objectives (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit):**
The trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit.
The society enables the exchange of information on deep-sea biology through its membership program and the organisation and sponsorship of scientific meetings. Specifically, the society directly supports the triennial international Deep-Sea Biology Symposium, and by supporting the triennial International Symposium on Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems and triennial International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals. These are the pre-eminent conferences in their respective fields, which reach out to academic, public, industry and government stakeholders. The society issues grants and awards. These include travel awards to support the society's mission of fostering the next generation of deep-sea biologists (e.g. through student awards) and to promote demographic diversity by enabling researchers from developing countries to attend symposia. The society also provides annual prizes recognising excellence in research. The society provides a public forum for discussion and information related to deep-sea biology through the website (http://dsbsoc.org), twitter feed (@DSBSoc), Instagram feed (@dsbsoc) slack forum (http://dsbsoc.slack.com), seminar series and emails. These services also provide information and articles on upcoming and recent events in the world of Deep-Sea Biology, as well as news on job and studentship announcements. The society’s student forum provides
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
3
access and assistance to students, while our mentoring program connects senior and junior researchers and students to offer career advice, help and support.
## **Additional details of objectives and activities:**
## _Policy on grantmaking_
Grants and awards are distributed by the society according to our principles. A group of trustees independently score applicants based on scientific merit and other criteria specific to the award. Applicants are ranked based on the combined scores. The top-ranking applicant(s) are selected for the award, after approval at a meeting of the trustees.
## _Contribution of volunteers_
The society is fortunate to receive hard work and assistance from its trustees, who all contribute their time and efforts on a purely voluntary basis. The society has also received voluntary support from several members of the deep-sea community.
## Section D Achievements and performance
## **Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year**
## _Members_
Active members on January 1 2023 were 349, we ended with 370; gain of 21 (6.02%). Membership remains a long-term source of funding for the society.
## _Administration_
The society continues to manage memberships through the Wild Apricot platform. We continue to remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Our Annual General Meeting was conducted in São Paulo on 17[th] of August 2023 in a hybrid format during the CBE7 (Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems) international symposium.
## _Awards_
We have used our income from membership, grants and event sponsorship to continue our commitment to prizes and awards. Awards are granted in two categories: participation (conference travel) and research awards. These each have a single annual deadline, but in 2023 we were able to make an additional round of conference awards available. We evaluate applications based on the fit to the criteria in the application form, and with an effort to ensure balanced support of gender and geographical diversity of the recipients. A full list of award recipients is available on our website.
## _Participation Award (Conference Award) recipients 2023:_
- Camille Poitrimol (Sorbonne Université, France): 7th International ChemosynthesisBased Ecosystems Symposium
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
4
- Melissa Betters (Temple University, USA): 7th International Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems Symposium
- Michelle McCartha (Western Washington University, USA): 7th International Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems Symposium
- Gervaise Barre (Ghent University, Belgium; Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy: University of Algarve, Portugal): 8th International Symposium on Deep-Sea Corals
- Michelle Neitzey (Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, USA): AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting
- Flávia Tiemi Masumoto (Institute Oceanographic of the University of São Paulo, Brazil): 17th Deep Sea Biology Symposium
_Research Award recipients 2023:_
- Pavanee Annasawmy (Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Plouzané, France): _Influencing factors for the frequency of microplastic intake in deep-sea fishes of the tropical Indian Ocean_
- Cristina Gutiérrez-Zárate (Centro Oceanográfico de Gijón, Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO-CSIC), Spain; Universitat de Barcelona, Spain): _Tissue biomass and biochemical composition of Dendrophyllia cornigera under the single and combined effects of warming, acidification and deoxygenation._
- Emanuel Pereira (Instituto de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental y Aplicada (IBBEA), CONICET-UBA, Argentina): _Integrative taxonomy and diversity of deep-sea valviferan Antarcturidae (Crustacea: Peracarida: Isopoda) from Argentina._
We also made two small awards to honour outstanding published contributions published within the prior 3 years: Paper of the Year, for an excellent paper in any subject relevant to the society, and Outstanding Ph.D thesis Paper, for an excellent recent paper that formed part of a student thesis.
## _Paper of the Year 2023 recipient_ :
Teresa Morganti (Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Germany)
Morganti, T.M., Slaby, B.M., de Kluijver, A., Busch, K., Hentschel, U., Middelburg, J.J., Grotheer, H., Mollenhauer, G., Dannheim, J., Rapp, H.T. and Purser, A., Boetius, A. 2022. Giant sponge grounds of Central Arctic seamounts are associated with extinct seep life. Nature Communications, 13(1), p.638. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-02228129-7
## _Outstanding Ph.D thesis Paper 2023 recipient:_
Joan Manel Alfaro Lucas (Ifremer, France)
Alfaro ‐ Lucas, J.M., Pradillon, F., Zeppilli, D., Michel, L.N., Martinez ‐ Arbizu, P., Tanaka, H., Foviaux, M. and Sarrazin, J., 2020. High environmental stress and productivity ‐ increase functional diversity along a deep sea hydrothermal vent gradient. Ecology, 101(11), p.e03144. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.3144
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
5
## _Mentoring & Student support_
We continue to support students and Early Career Researchers through our dedicated student webpage, facebook group _,_ and Slack channels. In addition, we also have the society's mentoring program which began in 2018 with three groups totalling 20 people. The mentoring network expanded over the years with now in 2023, 11 groups totalling 70 people. Their meetings cover topics such as work-life balance, science outreach and proposal writing. The society has also initiated a webinar series to compensate for the absence of conferences in 2022, with four webinars providing an opportunity for early career researchers to showcase their most recent works. This was pursued in 2023 with one additional webinar gathering two early career speakers in February 2023.
## _Communications_
The website remains key to inform the public about deep-sea biology, and the membership about our activities, incl. revisited Students & ECRs pages (https://dsbsoc.org/students-ecrs) for Next-Generation and Life After PhD contribution, Grant & Awards pages that can now be filled directly from the website, and past Conferences now proposing individual pages and their history. The Deep-Sea Resources page has been expanded with links to 2 new Deep-Sea Life issues, that the Communication Office continues to co-edit with DOSI, but links to discontinued Mendeley collections have been removed (a bibliographic effort will be re-initiated). The Communications Office created a group of DSBSoc Artists, 24 of which have already contributed with artworks displayed on the website (https://dsbsoc.org/artists), for a total of 50 Expressions of Interest. Meetings aiming at bridging arts with deep-sea sciences by fostering collaborations and interaction have been held and were popular. To disseminate arts and other news, newly appointed Media Officer Janet Ferguson-Roberts joined the Communications Office to accompany transition from a pauperized Slack to future communication channels (Discord) and co-manage a team of 4 Society members relaying public and publishing original content on social media platforms, incl. X (7,969 followers; +3.10% in 2023), Instagram (1,204 followers), and new presence on BlueSky (378 followers), and Mastodon (124 followers).
## _Diversity_
The Society created a new office-bearing trustee position of “Diversity Officer”, which was formally approved by the membership at the 2021 AGM. The remit of this role is to tackle diversity, equity and inclusivity issues in the Society and the wider field of Deep-Sea Biology. Following a survey disseminated to members, we composed a Religious Holidays Calendar for the year 2023, so that the society and its members were able to organise major events in times that were most accessible for those of any faith, wherever possible. The majority of DEIA effort this year was devoted to the development of the Accessibility, Inclusion, Support and Safety at Events guide - both a general version and a 17DSBS specific guide, which is now available on the symposium website. An EDI Resource collection was initiated and shared with the DSBS community, including an academic reading list, news articles and a directory for other existing
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
6
online resource collections (training videos and documents, accessible venues directory, podcasts, webinars, cast studies, D&I reports, evaluation tools, special issues etc.). This is a working space and will be updated as further literature and resources are
published/discovered/shared. Additionally, we made translations of our website publicly available.
## Section E Financial review
## **Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves**
The charity seeks to hold reserves in line with charity commission guidance. We aim to hold funds sufficient to cover a typical year of expenditure.
## **Details of any funds materially in deficit**
None applicable.
## **Further financial review details**
The charity's principal source of funds are membership fees, which have provided a steady income stream from the time of the society’s formation.
In 2023 we spent funds received from GBMF to support the 7th Chemosynthesis-Based Ecosystems conference.
This year we secured finance as part of a grant consortium called REDRESS (https://redressproject.eu/) so that we can support communications with the deep-sea community about deepsea ecosystem restoration.
At present we have no investments.
## Section F Other optional information
No additional information is provided.
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
7
## Section G Declaration
**The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
Signature
Full Name: Neus Campanyà i Llovet
Position: Treasurer trustee
Date: 12/07/2024
DSBS Trustees Annual Report 2023
8
## **Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees of The Deep Sea Biology Society**
## **Independent examiner's report to the trustees of The Deep Sea Biology Society**
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of The Deep Sea Biology Society (the Trust) for the year ended 31 December 2023.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
## **Independent examiner's statement**
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2. the accounts do not accord with those records; or
3. the accounts do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
## **Mark Johnstone FCA**
ICAEW Argents Chartered Accountants 15 Palace Street NORWICH Norfolk NR3 1RT
19 September 2024
9
**The Deep Sea Biology Society 1173699 Receipts and payments accounts CC16a** 01-Jan-23 31-Dec-23 **For the period from To**
## **Section A Receipts and payments**
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**14,115**
**767**
**8,808**
**22**
**20**
**23,732**
**-**
**23,732**
**10,683**
**-**
**2,815**
**500**
**-**
**341**
**11,154**
**39**
**25,532**
**1,604**
**1,604**
**27,136**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**14,115**
**767**
**8,808**
**22**
**20**
**23,732**
**-**
**23,732**
**10,683**
**-**
**2,815**
**500**
**-**
**341**
**11,154**
**39**
**25,532**
**1,604**
**1,604**
**27,136**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**11,779**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**14,115**
**767**
**-**
**8,808**
**22**
**20**
**-**
**23,732**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**23,732**
**10,683**
**-**
**2,815**
**500**
**-**
**341**
**22,933**
**39**
**-**
**37,311**
**1,604**
**-**
**1,604**
**38,915**
**(15,183)**
**0**
**93,191**
**78,008**|**Year ended 31**
**December 2023**
**to the nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Grants||||||||**-**|
|Membership|**14,115**|||||||**8,174**|
|Product sales|**767**|||||||**12**|
|Events||||||||**-**|
|Symposium|**8,808**|||||||**-**|
|Donations|**22**|||||||**48**|
|Refund|**20**|||||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**23,732**|||||||**8,234**|
||||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||||
|**Foreign exhange gain**||||||||**2,939**|
|||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_**|**-**|||||||**2,939**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||||
|||||||||**11,173**|
||||||||||
|Awards|**10,683**|||||||**3,301**|
|Publications|**-**|||||||**-**|
|General Administrative costs|**2,815**|||||||**4,546**|
|Promotional costs|**500**|||||||**518**|
|Events|**-**|||||||**510**|
|Bank charges|**341**|||||||**49**|
|Symposium|**11,154**|||||||**-**|
|Refund|**39**|||||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**25,532**|||||||**8,924**|
||||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||||
|**Foreign exhange loss**|**1,604**|||||||**-**|
|||||||||**-**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**1,604**|||||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||||
|||||||||**8,924**|
||||||||||
||**(3,404)**||**(11,779)**||**0**||**(15,183)**|**2,249**|
||**(1,298)**||**1,298**||**0**||**0**|**-**|
||**82,710**||**10,481**||**0**||**93,191**|**90,942**|
||**78,008**||**0**||**0**||**78,008**|**93,191**|
10
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|WISE account
Paypal USD account
WISE USD account
PayPal EUR account
WISE EUR account
Signature
**Details**
**Details**
Bank account
Paypal account
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**42,327**
**-**
**16,937**
**864**
**15,533**
**2,004**
**-**
**343**
**78,008**
**-**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Neus Campanyá i Llovet|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due (optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of approval|
|||Neus Campanyá i Llovet|18/09/2024|
|||||
11