Natural Environment Research Council

Natural Environment Research Council

Abbreviation	NERC
Formation	1965
Type	Non-Departmental Government Body
Purpose	Funding of UK environmental science research
Headquarters	Polaris House
Location	North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1EU
Region served	United Kingdom
Chief Executive	Prof. Duncan Wingham
Chairman	Sir Anthony Cleaver
Main organ	NERC Council
Parent organization	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Research Councils UK
Affiliations	AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, RCUK, STFC, TSB, UKSA
Budget	£400 million
Website	www.nerc.ac.uk

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is a British Research Council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences.

History

NERC began in 1965 when several environmental (mainly geographic) research organisations (including Nature Conservancy which became the Nature Conservancy Council in 1973 and was divided up in 1991) were brought under the one umbrella organisation. When most research councils were re-organised in 1994, it had new responsibilities - Earth observation and science-developed archaeology. Collaboration between research councils increased in 2002 when Research Councils UK was formed.

Chief executives

Sir John Lawton 1999-2005
Professor Alan Thorpe 2005-2011
Dr Steven Wilson (Acting) - 2011-2012
Professor Duncan Wingham - from 1 January 2012 (BIS announcement)

Organisational structure

The council's head office is at Polaris House in Swindon, alongside the other six Research Councils. NERC's research centres provide leadership to the UK environmental science community and play significant and influential roles in international science collaborations.

Insignia	Organisation
	British Antarctic Survey
	British Geological Survey
	Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
	National Centre for Atmospheric Science
	National Centre for Earth Observation
	National Oceanography Centre

It also supports a number of collaborative centres of excellence and subject-based designated Environmental Data Centres for the storage and distribution of environmental data.

Mission

The Natural Environment Research Council delivers independent research, survey, training and knowledge transfer in the environmental sciences, to advance knowledge of planet Earth as a complex, interacting system. The council's work covers the full range of atmospheric, Earth, biological, terrestrial and aquatic sciences, from the deep oceans to the upper atmosphere, and from the geographical poles to the equator.

NERC's mission is to gather and apply knowledge, create understanding and predict the behaviour of the natural environment and its resources, and communicate all aspects of the council's work. The British Meteorological Office is not part of NERC.

Airborne Research and Survey Facility

The Dornier Do 228 of the Natural Environment Research Council registered D-CALM.

The NERC Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF) collects and processes remotely sensed data for use by the scientific community. The data are collected by various instruments on board a Dornier 228 research aircraft based in Cambridge, UK. These instruments currently include a Leica ALS50-II LIDAR and two hyperspectral sensors, SPECIM AisaFenix and AisiaOwl.^[1] Meteorological data are also collected in-flight.

Processing is performed by ARSF-DAN (Data Analysis Node) at Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

References

↑ "ARSF Sensor Information". arsf-dan.nerc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-10-28.

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