Annex 1
WHAT IS
OCEANS 2025?
1. Oceans 2025 is a coordinated programme
of Strategic Research. The Oceans 2025 proposal was approved by
NERC Council in December 2006 with a budget of £116 million
over five years (not including capital funding).
2. Previously our seven institutions have
each been funded separately by NERC for our own individual strategic
programmes. In contrast to NERC's funding for curiosity-driven,
blue skies research, its Strategic Research funding is for programmes
of directed research addressing areas of present or anticipated
national need, and with environmental issues where sustained national
capability or major critical mass is required. Oceans 2025 provides
a framework for NERC-funded strategic marine science which will
not only maintain the leading role in Europe of the UK in this
area, but also enable translation of science into the UK and European
policy arena and provide many other opportunities to build on
the existing strength of the Marine Centres in knowledge transfer
and engagement between science and society.
3. Oceans 2025 addresses major science themes
of:
— Climate, ocean circulation and
sea level.
— Marine biogeochemical cycles.
— Shelf and coastal processes.
— Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
— Continental margins and the
deep ocean.
— Sustainable marine resources.
— Technology development http://www.ocean2025.org/.
— Next generation ocean prediction.
— Integration of sustained observations
in the marine environment.
and supports three national facilities:
— British Oceanographic Data Centre.
— Permanent Service for Mean Sea
Level.
— Culture Collection for Algae
and Protozoa.
4. Oceans 2025 will:
— implement an exciting new approach
to implementing strategic marine research for NERC;
— provide NERC clear and coherent
visibility of its major strategic investments in this crucial
component of the earth system;
— provide the basis for tackling
the key earth system linkages and processes within its broader
strategy and internationally;
— enable NERC to demonstrate its
"follow through"" on the major infrastructure and
capability investments it has secured from Treasury over the past
five years (eg ships, buildings, equipment and skilled people);
— widen the participation in strategic
UK marine science through the provision of SOFI and providing
access to the HEI sector of national infrastructure and capability;
and
— contribute to many international
research programmes (including those of DIVERSITAS, IGBP, SCOR
and WCRP).
5. Funding recommendations at the "as
bid" ("plus 10%") level and for major new areas
will enable us to:
— deliver the full Oceans 2025
cruise programme as bid, recognising that measurement at sea is
fundamental to our science. The cruise programme is a major platform
for bringing together interdisciplinary science teams and for
providing strong cohesion within the marine science community
as a whole—encompassing Research Centre, University and
International colleagues including collaboration supported through
SOFI (Themes 1, 2, 3, 5, 8 and 10);
— develop the progressive clarity
of the role of the "National Capability"" dimension
of the NERC Marine Centres. In 2001 (at the last marine programme
renewal) we clarified the role of "National Facilities"
and Oceans 2025 now draws out very clearly the contribution to
national capability made by our sustained observing programme
and research infrastructure. The latter is integral to our science
challenges, which fundamentally concern understanding decadal-scale
variability in the earth system (Theme 10);
— contribute to the "earth
system science" theme of the emerging NERC Strategy through
a major collaborative effort in ocean biogeochemistry (a critical
regulator of earth system feedbacks and the source of significant
quantitative uncertainty in the global carbon cycle) and which
also includes tackling the crucial problem of ocean acidification
(Theme 2);
— advance significantly towards
exploring the deep oceans and ocean margin frontiers. The recommended
investments will provide us with the platform to capitalise on
the UK's already world class status in this field, and to lever
additional resources from major European and international collaborative
programmes. These international linkages are crucial to developing
our knowledge of this largely unknown, undoubtedly economically
important, but also progressively "at risk"" part
of the earth system (Theme 5);
— make a substantial contribution
to UK Arctic marine research throughout the International Polar
Year (2007-08), and to enhance long term observations of both
physical and ecosystem parameters in the European Arctic shelf
seas (Themes 1 and 3);
— increase our investments in
technology development, and to enable us to operate in precisely
the coordinated way recommended by the Marine Sector Review of
2005 (Theme 8);
— capitalise on the UK's world-leading
position, working through the National Centre for Ocean Forecasting
(NCOF), the Met Office and the Hadley Centre to develop and transfer
into operational use enhanced current- and next-generation ocean
prediction elements of coupled climate and other forecast systems.
This now takes place within a much wider, coherent UK/EU ocean/climate
modelling strategy in which NERC can now fully engage (Theme 9);
— by elucidating the role of biodiversity
in ecosystem functioning, contribute to UK and European requirements
to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2010 thereby informing
sustainable stewardship of healthy seas and coasts (Theme 4);
— work with key stakeholders (particularly
Defra and SEERAD), to make an important start to developing and,
more effectively transferring knowledge concerning sustainable
use of marine bio-resources and ecosystem based approaches to
marine management, one of the most pressing and challenging issues
of the 21st century (Theme 6).This is despite the proposed reduction
in funding for Theme 6;
— build important agility into
Oceans 2025 and enable us to engage even more closely and strategically
with University colleagues through the 7.5% contribution to the
Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative;
— sustain key national facilities
(British Oceanographic Data Centre, Permanent Service for Mean
Sea Level, Culture Collection for Algae and Protozoa) each with
a distinctive and highly prized role, both nationally and internationally.
It will also support the statutory duty placed upon NERC under
the Conservation of Seals Act 1970 (BODC, PSMSL, CCAP, SMRU);
and
— lead best practice in data management
and custodianship in all the Ocean 2025 themes and make such data
available for the wider scientific and industrial community;
All of the above elements generate strong knowledge
transfer opportunities and engagement with key stakeholders.
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