NERC Digital Solutions Programme

Developing a Digital Hub and set of Toolkits that exploits environmental and other data (social, economic & health) to create innovative digital services that deliver economic, societal and environmental benefits across the UK.

NERC holds a unique and hugely significant treasure-trove of data, collated over many years by our funded scientists and institutes. By combining this with data from other sources and using it in new ways, we will unlock new insights to support more informed decisions, changing communities for the better.

As we develop the Digital Solutions Hub it will begin to act as a gateway to a broad set of inter-connected toolkits that facilitate improved access and better use of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) mayn peta-bytes of environmental data. The digital platform will have especially broad impacts on the environment, society and the economy by facilitating easier access and use of NERC data in business, government and society. Working with our partners, who are the users of what we build, will help grow its use and dissemination. The Hub will be integrated with wider social, economic, health and environmental datasets, to support decision making across a range of sectors. For stakeholders, the Hub will be the user-facing entry point that allows them to explore what NERC offers, ensuring that data and toolkits are findable and accessible. Data science, and the integration it requires, are highly complex and constantly evolving. Our approach recognises that computational tools need to ‘sit’ in the appropriate place in the technical ecosystem, and that users, particularly those who are new, must be supported in using and accessing them.

We will be working with a range of partners in local and national government, the private sector, technology sector, infrastructure providers, health sector, transportation, urban and regional planning, environmental science and a whole range of local and national agencies we will facilitate improved decision making in a wide range of sectors.

The Hub will benefit society by improving decision makers’ ability to make informed decisions through the integration of data that have potential benefits for the future prosperity of the UK. This ranges from local to national government, the NHS, utility sector, transport infrastructure, insurance industry, housing developers as well as individual members of society. Providing easier access to NERC’s environmental data offers opportunities to improving peoples’ health and better understanding the impacts of climate change on people, land and property across the UK.