It is essential for the NERC Thematic Programme 'Understanding the Micro-to-Macro Behaviour of Rock-Fluid Systems' (µ2M) to have an organisational and technical infrastructure in place to ensure that the data requirements of both the researchers and the end-user communities are satisfied. Such an infrastructure should ensure that any data brought together or generated by the projects are managed to the agreed standards and made available for the duration of the programme and beyond.
NERC Data Policy
NERC Data Policy requires that recipients of NERC grants offer
to deposit, with NERC, a copy of datasets resulting from NERC-funded
research, for use by other bonafide researchers. These datasets are
then accorded long-term stewardship by NERC. In order to ensure long-term
security and archiving of data arising from the µ2M Programme,
and hence to conform to the requirements of the NERC Data Policy,
the tasks associated with data management should remain the responsibility
of the relevant NERC Data Centre, and a Data Manager assigned to
the Project. The National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) is required
to fulfil this requirement for the µ2M Programme.
Overall tasks and specific deliverables are summarised below:
- data management guidelines — to produce 'high-level' guidelines
- quality assurance — to make available relevant sections of the BGS Quality Assurance Manual
- data provision and generation
- data management
- production of a data catalogue
- placement of catalogue on WWW
- production of quarterly reports and project reviews
Role of Data Centre
The Data Centre will provide the data management infrastructure for the Programme by:
- identifying data requirements across the Micro-to-Macro Programme
- managing the acquisition of major datasets
- receiving data and model output generated by the programme
- ensuring long-term security of the data
- disseminating the data after the completion of the Micro-to-Macro Programme
Enquiries and Comments
Enquiries and comments can be submitted using the enquiries form