Information Management Facilities Report
In late 2008 the BGS commissioned an independent review of all its facilities used to store collections of onshore and offshore cores, paper records, magnetic tapes, samples etc. This review was undertaken by the Tribal Group plc.
Download Information Management Facilities Review Final Report 4MB pdf.
In light of the recommendations of this report, the BGS decided to relocate the collections of cores and records etc., currently held at Gilmerton and Loanhead (Edinburgh), to a new extension of the existing National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) core store facilities at Keyworth. These improvements are taking place in the context of a much larger estates redevelopment exercise at Keyworth that will create new office accommodation and deliver a ‘green’ computer server suite to meet BGS and NERC’s future needs. This estates redevelopment project has been made possible through a substantial injection of capital funding provided by the NERC.
The decision to relocate the Gilmerton collections has, in particular, attracted considerable attention. There has been much interest in the related costs, which have been examined by the National Audit Office. For approximate costs see Table 1 below.
Construction of the Keyworth core store extension |
£1 900 000 |
Photography and bespoke packing of cores |
£250 000–£350 000 |
Relocation of the cores and paper archives (Gilmerton and Loanhead) |
£350 000 |
Cost of pallets for transport and storage |
£350 000 |
Income from Gilmerton site (guarantee from NERC, based on an independent market valuation) |
-£2 000 000 |
Income from Loanhead (guarantee from NERC) |
-£500 000 |
Total net cost |
£350 000–£450 000 |
