BGS research facility gains international recognition

Located at BGS’s headquarters in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, the National Geological Repository (NGR) is the UK’s most comprehensive collection of geological materials, consisting of over 600 km of drillcore and 16 million specimens from the UK and its continental shelf. The material, which has been collected over the last 200 years, represents around 500 million years of geological time and helps us to understand the evolution of the Earth.

The onshore component of the NGR’s drillcore collection, with 12 500 individual boreholes represented, 200 km of continuous drillcore and 1 million hand specimens, has been recognised by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) as a designated IUGS Geo-Collection — a museum collection of global importance because of its high scientific, historical or educational relevance for geological sciences.

The NGR is now one of 32 collections recognised globally by the IUGS. In total, the IUGS has designated 300 geological heritage sites across the globe since 2022. Alongside the heritage sites and collections, the IUGS has designated 65 ‘heritage stones’, building stones that are recognised for their cultural and architectural significance.

Geoscience is constantly evolving; however, physical core samples remain the only direct observation of the subsurface and their analysis is critical to the energy transition and associated technologies, such as carbon capture and subsurface storage. The NGR’s drillcore collection has underpinned research, informed policy and driven economic growth in the UK over the last eight decades. The collection is constantly growing and reflects changing subsurface policy and priorities. It also contributes to wider understanding of UK geology and BGS’s mapping programmes.

In 2025, the NGR released a study that revealed its value to the UK economy. The economic analysis shows that the NGR saves major energy and infrastructure projects significant costs through access and re-use of pre-drilled rock core:

• £1.5 billion in avoided drilling and analysis costs for major energy and infrastructure projects over the last 20 years
• up to 36 times return on investment based on costs of maintaining the facility
• time savings of around three years per infrastructure project through access to legacy core samples

Our relationship with the subsurface is constantly changing. Areas previously explored for coal are now being considered for geothermal, whilst regions once prized for oil and gas are now potential locations for hydrogen or energy storage. Having long-term data and specimen holdings like the onshore drillcore collection, which can be re-interrogated repeatedly over time, is priceless.

We are delighted that the NGR onshore collection has been recognised by the IUGS and designated as an official Geo-Collection.

Simon Harris, collections conservation and digitisation manager at BGS.

The NGR was officially announced as an IUGS Geo-Collection at the Third 100 IUGS Geoheritage Event 2026, which took place in Algarve, Portugal, betweeen 4 to 8 November 2026.

Find out more about why we store geological core.