BGS Digital data review 2021–22
BGS is seeking a comprehensive understanding of the data ecosystem in which we operate, providing a detailed assessment of our current operating models and the options for our target operating model over the next 10 years.
18/06/2021 By BGS PressBGS produces a wide range of data that helps to improve understanding and communication of the impact of geo-environmental properties and hazards in Great Britain, thereby improving society’s resilience and enabling people, businesses and Government to make better-informed decisions. These are provided under a balanced portfolio of open data and commercial licensing of our premium products. This approach ensures a sustainable platform to support the development of datasets and services while making our data as widely accessible as possible.
We need to continue to listen and review how we provide our data in the most effective way to maximise its potential use and ensure that users capitalise on the resources available from BGS. To help us understand how best to do this, we are investing in a comprehensive review of our digital data business operations.
Why we are reviewing our digital data business operations
BGS is a data-rich organisation. We house an enormous amount of globally significant data, collections and information because of our heritage, research activity and contributions from the wider geoscience community. The range and quantity of our data and collections have continued to expand over decades, along with the continued need to ensure there are the correct resources to support their preservation and global access to them.
As technology rapidly develops, we must harness our potential to gather, combine and disseminate data in the most effective ways possible. BGS is instrumental in supporting a wider, multi-agency approach to address industrial and societal needs, most importantly in dealing with our changing environment.
Our vision
Our vision is to create a digital-first geoscience organisation, linking people, data, equipment and technology to make new inferences about the world around us and accelerate scientific discovery. We have a strong track record of producing innovative technological solutions to geoscience problems and early adoption of emerging technology.
We strive to be the partner of choice for geological research and innovation within our user community. We have many success stories, including providing online access to over one million borehole logs and the development of bespoke data products.
Objective
Our objective is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the data ecosystem in which we operate, providing a detailed assessment of our current operating model and the options for our target operating model over the next 10 years.
To achieve this, we have completed a comprehensive series of stakeholder engagement projects – including online surveys, focus groups and 1-to-1 interviews – to understand what our external partners want from BGS digital products, to capture best practice and to understand how users wish to access and interact with our services. The responses received are helping us understand the wider impact and importance of BGS data and providing an important assessment of our data users’ needs both now and into the future.
Who is this data review relevant to?
Given the focus of the consultation, we consider it to have particular relevance to:
- our active data-user base, including our open-data users, data licensees, data reseller partners and organisations that interact with the NGDC
- all levels of local government, including county councils, unitary and other local and combined authorities
- devolved governments, government departments, non-departmental government bodies and other public sector agencies
- environmental planners, engineers, architects, consultants and technical specialists
- the infrastructure sector, including transport, energy and other utilities
- startups and small businesses, especially those currently struggling to access and use geoscientific data in their processes
- technology and data-driven or data-rich companies, and their investors
- academia and the research sector, including UKRI agencies and universities
- international data agencies, geological surveys and governance bodies
When will the outcome be announced?
The consultation period closed at the end of 2021. We are currently working with an external consultancy to help us consolidate the stakeholder feedback, using it to build and articulate a series of target operating model scenarios. In turn, these will be presented, discussed and refined through a number of internal workshops during the Summer of 2022, with the aim to reach an agreed operating model and work towards implementation later in the year.
Interested?
If you wish to hear more, please contact us at digitaldata@bgs.ac.uk.
Relative topics
Related news
UK bidding to host the International Geological Congress 2028
18/03/2024
BGS has partnered with the Geological Society of London and the Scottish Geology Trust to develop a bid to host the 38th International Geological Congress in Glasgow in 2028.
BGS to lead a new research project on microplastic occurrence in springs
06/03/2024
BGS has been awarded a two-year research project to undertake the first assessment of microplastic occurrence in springs in the UK.
Local MP helps BGS launch a ‘living laboratory’
05/03/2024
BGS is implementing a low-carbon heating system to help meet its net zero targets and provide data to the public.
Scientists produce first record of environmental data off coast of Hawai’i
01/03/2024
An international team of researchers, including BGS geoscientists, have succeeded in acquiring a continuous record of environmental data using fossilised coral from Hawai’i.
BGS data product licence fees to rise
01/03/2024
New direct licence fees to be introduced from 1 April 2024.
BGS seismologist named editor-in-chief of Geophysical Journal International
29/02/2024
Margarita Segou has been appointed as the editor-in-chief of one of the world’s leading, peer-reviewed research journals in solid-Earth geophysics.
BGS to help deliver International Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management
27/02/2024
BGS has been announced as part of a consortium approved by the UN to deliver its International Centres of Excellence on Sustainable Resource Management.
BGS scientist announced as Scottish Government policy fellow
06/02/2024
BGS geohazard scientist Roxana Ciurean has been named amongst new policy fellows for the Scottish Government.
BGS adds more than 60 new carbon dioxide storage units to its national carbon dioxide storage database
30/01/2024
BGS has delivered its first major update of the national carbon dioxide storage database, CO2 Stored.
Burrow-detecting devices could protect flood defences
23/01/2024
BGS scientists have trialled a new way of detecting animal burrows in clay flood embankments.
BGS completes first mapping expedition to Ascension Island
11/12/2023
BGS marine geoscientists travelled to Ascension Island to support its government with an ongoing, conservation-driven mapping programme.