About the National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC)

The NGDC is the NERC's designated data centre for earth sciences data and information and as such, acquires, stores and manages a wide range of data and information. It is also a registered ‘place of deposit' under the terms of the Public Records Act 1958.

The NGDC currently manages over four hundred datasets including:

  • active datasets created and maintained by BGS
  • datasets created and deposited by NERC thematic programmes such as URGENT, M2M, and Ocean Margin Link
  • datasets created and deposited by recipients of NERC research grants
  • datasets deposited under the terms of the Mining Industry Act 1926
  • datasets deposited under the terms of the Water Resources Act 1991
  • datasets created and deposited by industrial organisations such as various oil companies, the Coal Authority and Nirex Ltd.

Data Rack Data

The NERC designated data centres are responsible for:

  1. ensuring the adequate physical custody, validation, dissemination and review/purging of data in their subject area. (In many cases they will undertake this stewardship themselves; when they do not, they will at least have contact with those who do.)
  2. maintaining standards of data stewardship in the subject area
  3. pro-actively seeking out data in their subject area which would merit more active stewardship; encouraging the deposit of datasets by other organisations; and advising NERC-funded academics on whether and where their data should be deposited on completion of their projects
  4. promoting the case for investment where necessary to facilitate the above
  5. promoting the use of data in their subject area by devising and promulgating catalogues, directories, leaflets and brochures
  6. formally arranging licences to control the release of datasets to non-NERC recipients, the uses to which the datasets may be put, and their further dissemination; and to protect NERC from legal liability; pricing data in accordance with NERC guidelines in order to derive revenue and/or other scientific benefits from NERC's data resource
  7. advising on the licensing/purchase of non-NERC data required by researchers. In some cases they will undertake this on behalf of the scientist, to ensure the most favourable terms and conditions, and best value for money
  8. handling all requests for their discipline's data made to NERC with the specific invocation of the Environmental Information Regulations
  9. maintaining up-to-date information on data holdings in their discipline on the World Wide Web. The complete set of data centre pages, and other pages to which they refer, will thus represent NERC's formal definition of its ‘corporate data resource’
  10. acting as a gateway to other NERC custodians of data, whether in their own or another NERC discipline. Holding and displaying catalogues, directories, leaflets and brochures relating to the activities and holdings of other NERC Data Centres
  11. representing their science disciplines within NERC on matters concerning data, e.g. via the NERC Data Management Advisory Group