New funding to underpin long-term polar research
British Antarctic Survey (BAS) is a beneficiary of a major investment in the UK’s network of leading environmental science research centres announced today (8 October).
Funding of £8.4 million, from a pot of £101 million, will support large-scale environmental observations, modelling and analysis, and research capabilities through innovations in platforms, sensors and data science.
These data are crucial for managing natural resources, biodiversity, human health and building our understanding of and resilience to environmental hazards and climate change. It underpins science across the UK’s renowned environmental research sector and supports critical scientific advice to government.
The investment by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), part of UK Research and Innovation, will also strengthen our national security from threats caused by environmental hazards, and more widely support the research and innovation sector in driving green economic growth.
£8.4M has been awarded to the British Antarctic Survey and Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling to deliver the UK Polar Research Expertise for Science and Society (PRESICENT) programme which delivers underpinning capabilities (models, field research platforms, data etc.) to understand the role & response of polar marine ecosystems to changes in environmental stressors (e.g. temperature, sea ice, pollution), measure and predict polar ice sheet contributions to global sea level rise (and associated tipping points) and deliver Antarctic space weather observations to global networks in support of the UK National Risk Register.
This funding has been awarded from NERC’s National Capability Single Centre Science and National Public Good initiatives, one of the UK’s largest environmental science investment programmes.
Dr Iain Williams, Director of Strategic Partnerships at NERC, said:
“This major investment by NERC will build on the UK’s extensive environmental science capabilities, helping us better understand how our planet is changing at local and global scales and enhance resource and environmental management. Through this investment, NERC is supporting scientists and policymakers in responding to major global challenges in pollution, warming seas, biodiversity loss, and climate change, and our research will help us to live sustainably.”
Professor Dominic Hodgson who’s the Interim Director of Science at BAS, said:
“This funding is essential to underpin future research programmes in the polar regions. Our planet is changing rapidly as a result of human activities. It is critically important that we monitor and understand how the polar regions are reacting, and how the changes there, such as loss of the ice sheets, will impact the rest of the planet. This will help us guide governments and society on how to adapt to a changing world.”
The remainder of funding has been awarded as follows:
£41.4M has been awarded to the National Oceanography Centre (and Marine Delivery Partners) to deliver the Atlantic Climate and Environment Strategic Science (AtlantiS) programme which provides new capability to combine ocean observations from a range of platforms and sensors, next-generation models and innovation in digital tools to meet the aspiration of healthy, biologically diverse and resilient marine environments, a sustainable blue economy and communities safe from natural hazards.
£29.9M has been awarded to the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology to deliver the Adapting and Enhancing the Community Environmental Sensor-Survey network in the UK (Understanding the UK Environment) programme to increase the UK environmental scientific capability to quantify how the UK land, water and air are changing in response to the combined pressures of climate and land use change, and to provide integrated solutions to government, business, and industry.
£12.4M has been awarded to the National Centre for Atmospheric Science to deliver a programme of work that advances access to atmospheric data (including observatories) and the development of novel atmospheric models to improve our ability to predict the Earth’s climate system and provides evidence to e.g., government & industry, on topics such as air quality, climate, hazardous weather, sustainable fuel emissions & pollutant dispersion.
£8.6M has been awarded to the National Centre for Earth Observation to deliver a programme of work translating multiscale Earth Observation data from novel satellites into scientific knowledge and actionable information that benefits wider science and policy communities. Drawing on decades of world-leading UK expertise and international collaboration to address the most urgent challenges (e.g., societal climate impacts) and understand changes in the carbon cycle, air pollution, energy & water cycles, and their linkages such as wildfires.
Find out more about the PRESCIENT research ambitions