RRS Discovery

• The RRS Discovery is the first UK Royal Research Ship to be refitted in Babcock’s Rosyth facilities as part of the Government’s £45 million award to maintain its flagship scientific research vessels

• The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is set to manage multiple international world leading science research expeditions in 2023.
• Recent expeditions include the DY158 expedition which circumnavigated the A76a megaberg.

£45 million in funding to maintain the UK’s state-of-the-art fleet of research vessels was recently announced by Industry and Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani.

The RRS Discovery, operated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), will embark on a 9,000-mile expedition today (27 October) to conduct an extensive scientific survey within the South Atlantic ocean – and could even discover new species in previously unexplored depths.

Life on board Discovery

For Maritime UK Week, we are sharing a recent video interview with Stewart Mackay, Captain of the RRS Discovery, who gives fascinating insight into his journey to becoming a captain, how a Royal Research Ship is run and some of his favourite memories at sea.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC), one of the world’s top ocean science organisations for research and innovation, has appointed a global expert in autonomous and robotics development to lead the UK’s national marine research facility.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has successfully deployed the first of the UK’s new fleet of Biogeochemical (BGC) Argo profiling floats as part of the international Argo programme.

A mini boat built by students from King Edward VI School in Southampton has made its maiden voyage from the city on the world-class research ship, RRS Discovery as part of a project coordinated by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).

The NOC is working on a global research project with teams from NASA Oceans and WHOI (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) to assist the NASA-led EXPORTS programme and WHOI’s Ocean Twilight Zone project.

The National Oceanography Centre’s (NOC) Royal Research Ship Discovery left Southampton, on 25 March 2021, for an expedition to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain Sustained Observatory (PAP-SO).