The trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the charity's governing document, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019).

The charity's objectives are to advance, and to encourage the advance of, marine science and technology in Scotland and elsewhere, and further thereto:

• To establish, undertake, manage, enable, encourage and promote research, communication and education across Scotland and elsewhere in relation to marine science and technology, and the marine environment and ecosystems; and

• To provide information and support to members, other organisations, public bodies and governments and to inform marine policy and management; and

• To contribute to and enhance the public's knowledge and understanding of the marine environment and ecosystems.

MAST-Scotland (MAST-S) is acting as an effective legal and charitable entity receiving income from a variety of sources which relate to its charitable objectives. MAST-S capacity to act as a single contracting party is proving to be a useful mechanism for the wider MASTS research community to establish MoUs which may lead to more substantive collaboration. MAST-S successfully commissioned the SharkScape Project with funding from Shell UK. A consortium of MASTS member organisations led by Edinburgh Napier University will conduct this three year research project designed to better understand the distribution and ecology of key shark and ray species in the NE Atlantic. The success of this process is likely to be the platform further investments of similar scale. MAST-S derives income from managing both the commissioning process and subsequent oversight of the commissioned project.

Subject to a review of the cost benefits of European Marine Board (EMB) Membership, the MAST-S Board made the decision to withdraw from the EMB. The review included a survey of the MASTS membership designed to gauge the level of connection with EMB activities and preferred and demonstrable routes to engagement in European research. The evidence suggested that direct contact between researchers was a more effective way of securing access to European collaboration and research funding. Under the terms of EMB membership MAST-S will remain a member until March 2026. The funds liberated by not continuing with EMB subscriptions will be directed towards more productive access to Europe for MASTS members.

Conference and workshop organisation together with research project management and co-ordination continues to yield some income which MAST-S is able to reinvest in its charitable objectives. We believe there is scope to expand this aspect of MAST-S activity. MAST-S currently has MoUs with Canadian and Japanese organisations. MAST-S secured Observer Status at the COP26 event in Glasgow in 2021 and retains this status for subsequent COP events. As part of MAST-S strategic role in supporting education and capacity building, it is exploring the potential to attract philanthropic funding with a view to establishing an endowment fund to support the MASTS Graduate School in perpetuity. Whilst this initiative is at an early stage, if successful it will represent a significant achievement.

MASTS Associate Membership contributions are paid to MAST-S and the aim is to use these funds to support additional MASTS projects and staff costs within the MASTS Directorate.

In 2024, The Crown Estate Scotland joined MASTS and MAST-S as Associate Members. Queens University Belfast also joined as Full members. Due to financial difficulties, the Universities of Dundee and Essex reluctantly withdrew from membership with the intension of rejoining at a later date.

Results for the year ended 31 March 2025 are given in the Statement of Financial Activities. The assets and liabilities are given in the Balance Sheet. The financial statements should be read in conjunction with the related notes.

In summary income amounted to £589,092 (2024 - £79,063) and expenditure totalled £562,079 (2024 - £93,073) resulting in a net surplus for the year before gains and losses, of £27,013 (2024 - deficit of £14,010).

Reserves Policy

The MAST-Scotland Board has an agreed reserves policy which refers to the operational costs of MASTS. In practice this means the direct operational costs of MAST-Scotland and the ability, in the short term, to contribute to the operation of the MASTS consortium and principally the costs of the MASTS Directorate should the need arise. This could for example include helping to cover any shortfalls in member contributions caused by late payments or withdrawal of members. Alternatively, the reserve offers the flexibility to take advantage of opportunities to further MAST-Scotland’s charitable purposes in support of unforeseen opportunities to engage in projects which may require some level of financial intervention.  In addition, the reserve offers a degree of financial stability which may be required to demonstrate financial viability to some potential funding bodies.

The funds of the charity are currently being accrued to ensure that a minimum reserve of approximately one year of operational costs (Secretariat, legal, accountancy and necessary insurances) for MAST-Scotland is established. For 2024/25 these operational costs amounted to £16,630 and at the balance sheet date the total reserves amounted to £218,772 whereby £197,604 are unrestricted and £21,168 are restricted.

Risk Management

The trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, and are satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to the major risks. These risks are re-evaluated on an ongoing basis by the Executive Director and the Secretariat, and the Board is alerted to salient emerging issues. The charity retains insurance provisions to protect the interests of the trustees as well as the Chair and the Secretariat.

Reference and Administrative Information:

Charity registration number: SC045259

Company registration number: SC485726

Registered office: Thomson Cooper, 3 Castle Court, Carnegie Campus, KY11 8PB

The charitable company is a company limited by guarantee and is governed by its Memorandum and Articles of Association. The company was incorporated on 2 September 2014 and registered as a charity from 28 November 2014.

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

Professor N R Fyfe (Chair)

Professor N R Forsyth (Appointed 23 April 2024)

Dr J N Oswald (Appointed 15 May 2025)

Professor J M Baxter

M M Crawford

Dr D E K Ferrier (Resigned 15 May 2025)

Professor T J McGenity (Appointed 1 August 2024 and Resigned 15 May 2025)

The trustees, who are also the directors of MAST-Scotland for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year.

In preparing these financial statements, the trustees are required to:

- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

- observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP;

- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

- state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and

- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

The trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Thomson Cooper were appointed as auditor to the company and a resolution proposing that they be re-appointed will be put at a General Meeting.

Each of the trustees has confirmed that there is no information of which they are aware which is relevant to the audit, but of which the auditor is unaware. They have further confirmed that they have taken appropriate steps to identify such relevant information and to establish that the auditor is aware of such information.

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of MAST-Scotland (the ‘charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2025 which comprise the statement of financial activities, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company's affairs as at 31 March 2025 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, for the year then ended;

have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charity in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The other information comprises the information included in the annual report other than the financial statements and our auditor's report thereon. The trustees are responsible for the other information contained within the annual report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon. Our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the course of the audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact.

We have nothing to report in this regard.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

the information given in the financial statements is inconsistent in any material respect with the trustees' report; or

proper accounting records have not been kept; or

the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records; or

we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

As explained more fully in the statement of trustees' responsibilities, the trustees, who are also the directors of the charity for the purpose of company law, are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error. In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charity’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

We have been appointed as auditor under section 44(1)(c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and report in accordance with the Act and relevant regulations made or having effect thereunder.

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor's report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud, is detailed below.

We considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas: existence and timing of recognition of grant income and the posting of transactions to the correct funds. We discussed these risks with management, designed audit procedures to test the timing and existence of donations and grant income, including reviewing of grant paperwork and terms and conditions, reviewing the allocation of costs against the correct funding and reviewed areas of judgement for indicators of management bias.

We identified areas of laws and regulations that could reasonably be expected to have a material effect on the financial statements from our sector experience through discussion with the officers and other management (as required by the auditing standards). We focused on specific laws and regulations which may have a direct material effect on the financial statements or operation of the charity, including the Charities and Trustees Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended).

We assessed the extent of compliance of the laws and regulations identified above by inspecting any legal correspondence, the Care Inspectorate report and making enquiries of management.

We reviewed the laws and regulations in areas that directly affect the financial statements including financial and taxation legislation and considered the extent of compliance with those laws and regulations as part of our procedures on the related financial statement items.

With the exception of any known or possible non-compliance with relevant and significant laws and regulations, and as required by the auditing standards, our work in respect of these was limited to enquiry of the officers and management of the company.

We communicated identified laws and regulations throughout our team and remained alert to any indications of non-compliance throughout the audit. However, the primary responsibility for the prevention and detection of fraud rests with the trustees. To address the risk of fraud we identified internal controls established to identify risk, performed analytical procedures to identify unusual movements, assessed any judgements and assumptions made in determining accounting estimates, reviewed journal entries for unusual transactions and identified related parties.

Owing to the inherent limitations of an audit, there is an unavoidable risk that we may not have detected some material misstatements in the financial statements, even though we have properly planned and performed our audit in accordance with auditing standards. We are not responsible for preventing non-compliance and cannot be expected to detect non-compliance with all laws and regulations.

These inherent limitations are particularly significant in the case of misstatement resulting from fraud as this may involve sophisticated schemes designed to avoid detection, including deliberate failure to record transactions, collusion or the provision of intentional misrepresentations.

A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.

Other matters

Thomson Cooper is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

MAST-Scotland did not exceed the £500,000 gross income audit threshold for Scottish charities in the previous accounting period, so no audit was required.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charity’s trustees, as a body, in accordance with Regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charity’s trustees those matters we are required to state to them in an auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity’s trustees as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Thomson Cooper is eligible for appointment as auditor of the charity by virtue of its eligibility for appointment as auditor of a company under section 1212 of the Companies Act 2006.

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

MAST-Scotland is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in Scotland. The registered office is Thomson Cooper, 3 Castle Court, Carnegie Campus, Dunfermline, KY11 8PB.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's Memorandum and Articles of Association, the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 (as amended), the Companies Act 2006, FRS 102 “The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland” (“FRS 102”) and the Charities SORP "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019). The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors or grantors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the charity has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Membership subscriptions are recognised on receipt as these are nonrefundable.

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement, and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably.

Expenditure is classified by activity. The costs of each activity are made up of the total of direct costs and shared costs, including support costs involved in undertaking each activity. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs which contribute to more than one activity and support costs which are not attributable to a single activity are apportioned between those activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources. Central staff costs are allocated on the basis of time spent, and depreciation charges are allocated on the portion of the asset’s use.

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

Project and function costs

Insurance

Bank charges

Legal and professional

Contribution to MASTS USTAN costs

ASM funds distributed

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

The Key Management Personnel are considered to be the trustees and no remuneration was provided to them during the year.

The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.

The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.

AGU Fund: This fund represents underspent monies from MAST Delegates from previous events which will be used to support attendance at future conferences.

The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.

During the year, St Andrews University made resources available to the charity to assist with the day to day running of operations.

This is too difficult to quantify therefore no donation in kind has been brought into the financial statements.

The charity made payments totalling £65,515 (2024: £84,293) to St Andrews University during the year as a donation of funds collected through membership income and tickets sold for the Annual Science Meeting held by the charity.