Data and Research Facilities

The National Oceanography Centre is the UK hub for marine data sharing, sample preservation and marine research facilities.

Our facilities provide the UK and the global science community with long-term management of quality controlled, irreplaceable ocean data, and support to the scientific community to ensure high quality data are collected. We are home to state-of-the-art core logging facilities and marine sediment cores, collected by the Natural Environmental Research Council’s ships and researchers. We also curate a vast collection of deep-sea and open-ocean invertebrate samples from many areas of the ocean dating back to 1925. Our facilities are available to scientific community and to industry.

British Oceanographic Data Centre

The British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC) is a national facility based at the Liverpool site of the National Oceanography Centre. BODC is responsible for the storage and distribution of data collected from the marine environment across a range of disciplines. BODC works closely with National Marine Facilities to gather and curate data that are made available for scientists to use long term. Stored data available from BODC include biological, chemical, physical and geophysical data for nearly 22,000 variables.

Visit the British Oceanographic Data Centre website

British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility

The British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF) is based at the Southampton site of the National Oceanography Centre and is Britain’s national deep-sea core repository. BOSCORF contains state-of-the-art core logging facilities and is home to marine sediment cores, collected by the Natural Environmental Research Council’s ships and researchers. The storage and curation of cores stored at BOSCORF enables scientific communities to gain access to the cores.

Visit the BOSCORF website

Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level

The Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) is hosted at the Liverpool site of the National Oceanography Centre. The facility, which was established in 1933, uses data from a global network of tidal gauges for analysis and interpretation of sea level. Sea level data, collected and published by PSMSL, are available for use by the scientific community and industry.

Visit the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level website

National Tidal and Sea Level Facility

The National Tidal and Sea Level Facility (NTSLF), based at the Liverpool site of the National Oceanography Centre, is the UK centre of excellence for sea level monitoring, coastal flood forecasting and the analysis of sea level extremes. It is the focus for sea level research in the UK and for its interpretation, which can be used to advise policy makers, planners and coastal engineers.

The NTSLF comprises the UK National Tide Gauge Network, geodetic networks for monitoring vertical land movements, and gauges in the British Dependent Territories of the South Atlantic and Gibraltar.

Visit the National Tidal and Sea Level Facility website

Discovery Collections

The Discovery Collections comprise benthic and pelagic samples from many areas of the world’s oceans.

It is the only collection consisting solely of deep-sea and open-ocean invertebrates in the UK and provides vital insight into the species that live at extreme ocean depths.

The Discovery Collections facility maintains a key time-series of deep-sea organisms dating back to 1925 when the RRS Discovery collected the first samples in the Southern Ocean.

More about the Discovery Collections

Coastal and Shelf Seas Instrumentation Service

Project lifecycle services from engineering design, deployment and recovery, through to data management and analysis support.

We support coastal and shelf seas science, by providing expert advice on instrumentation requirements and platform delivery methods to meet scientific objectives. We offer a fieldwork support service to ensure high quality data are collected.

More about the Coastal and Shelf Seas Instrumentation Service