M-Cubed Research Consulting

“Right now, it’s just spray paint and a dream”
“That’s how it starts!”

Welcome back! It is our second year, and our second – slightly festive – yearly review, CubedUp 2025!

“M-Cubed’s first yearly review is bit like our twenty quid Christmas tree – sparse, dimly lit, and loaded with tinsel to fill it out – nonetheless, it’s time to grab 2024 by the baubles”

Can I be honest? I’ve actually forgotton to get a Christmas Tree this year – life has felt pretty non-stop this year, except for August. We’ll get to that.

“As we approach the new year – M-Cubed Research Consulting might be on the cusp of a breakthrough.”

January was dominated by emails going back and forth, as we sent out Offers of Service through an embassy, to the government –

In February, we widened the net, and tried the approach with other embassies – without much joy.

By March, I was invited to the International Martime Organisation to discuss a new strategy, and things were looking promising –

I showed up outside the Sky Centre in Isleworth: uninvited and it seemed quite unwelcome, to try to find out what happened to Sky Ocean Rescue.

I started writing letters, including one to Nigel Milton, Chief Sustainability Officer at Heathrow, only to get ignored.

Now I should probably be fair to Nigel Milton for not writing back to me, the week after I wrote to him about looking for critical minerals and diversifying supply chains – one of the substations powering Heathrow exploded, just down the street from my home: I wrote about it as an analogy for critical minerals in The Perils of Overreliance.

April was a gamechanger.

I’ve had a sense this year, that the mission for Own Your Ocean is being vindicated on the world stage – and in a defining moment of the year, Donald Trump signed an executive order making marine marine mineral exploration US Policy – which means, we are now in a race against the mining industry to ensure developing countries get an equitable share of their resources.

The week prior I had been told how it would “take years to set up a business like [M-Cubed]” – and my takeway had become…

“Well, it’s lucky I have started early!”

Also in April, I attended Ocean Business ’25 in Southampton – meeting representatives from Universities, InnovateUK and industry: I even got the opportunity to pilot a Remotely Operated Vehicle!

However, a change in government – and a civil service reshuffle in the developing country I had been talking to, put us back to square one.

Conversations with the UK Department of Business and Trade Responsible Mining Team, both in country and in London highlighted how much work would be needed to offer our services to nation states – and that the beuracratic systems in place are not equipped to handle our business model.

We had to think of another way – it took a bit of time

The summer was tough, the strategy wasn’t working – and just when I needed the funds to attand conferences – like the 2025 UN Ocean Conference in Nice – well…

“One new exhaust, two defective lights, three auxilary belts and a fa-il-ed M.O.T” – sang slightly festively

Bootstrapping a business can take its toll – I spent most of my summer either at my day job, or plugging away on email marketing direct to government ministers, and to London embassies – hoping for a breakthrough.

Until something could have broke.

On July 24th, at work – a forklift swept me off of my feet, crushing my ankle between two wooden pallets. I was very lucky that my safety boots had good ankle support, because my foot and leg were almost perpendicular to eachother.

Within days, I was expereincing hives of neuropathic pain, within weeks I was ordered by my doctor to strictly rest. The summer slump became a stall, I felt useless.

Then the idea came – maybe I should just do the desktop studies, and publish it, open access

Now, I had written off the idea of attending the Blue Earth Summit – I already couldn’t afford it, and that was before I lost the overtime I had managed to book: Forklift 1 – 0 Michael and all.

However, you and I both know, that I am no stranger to standing (or on this occassion, sitting) outside of conferences – and slightly concerning event security. Even more exciting, this time the sign was a signifcant improvement – maybe, even legible!

Before I share this picture, know this – Woolwich in October was a wind tunnel, and I was freezing – I had a jumper and a coat on under my shirt!

In November, news came out of COP30 about the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF) – an investment fund to support nations to conserve their forests, and increase the value of trees in the ground. This is the perfect analogy of Own Your Ocean’s vision to use funded conservation as a meaningful offramp for exploration. It’s something I will follow into the new year, and we hope to model from this facility.

Once again, here we are in December – I had the opportunity to attend the 5th Critical Minerals Association Conference. I asked a question, which I have to admit came out as word soup, but it prompted half a dozen fascinating people to approach me. I already had a skip in my step… figuratively anyway (four and half months in the ankle is still a bit iffy) – but then there was one final surprise…

I struck up a conversation with Noah Law MP, Chair of the All-Party Parlimentary Group (APPG) on Critical Minerals: and to my surprise, he has invited me to speak at the next meeting in Parliament!

This year, world events have made it feel like the world might be listening – we’ve only just hit 1000 website visitors and 1500 website views, I am tempering my delusions – but next year…

Next year, it feels like this mission will be heard.