tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45743857590016774392024-03-13T09:43:26.796-07:00British Geological SurveyBritish Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-50916909106149033132019-03-01T03:45:00.000-08:002019-03-01T03:45:05.502-08:00BGS Annual Review 2017-2018 <br />
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I am pleased to be able to present the <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=3502">BGS Annual Review</a>
for the last financial year 2017-2018.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Although not exhaustive, the review highlights activities
within BGS. As a world-leading, global geological survey, we have an extensive
programme of geoscience research, survey and monitoring, data management and
dissemination. This helps us to focus on public-good science and to understand
and predict the geological processes that matter to people’s lives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Increasingly, our work is being carried out internationally
and is directed towards issues such as helping developing countries realise
sustainable benefits from their natural resources. Most recently we have been
using geoscience to help provide solutions to the major challenges recognised
in the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/">UN
Sustainable Development Goals</a></span> (SDGs), which are critical to
underpinning global economic development. Many of these challenges, including
food and water security, urbanisation, energy poverty, resilience to natural
hazards and climate change, span the interface between the Earth and human
systems. <o:p></o:p></div>
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On an administrative level we have created a BGS Board,
chaired by Sir Keith O’Nions and comprised of <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/boardBiogs.html">highly influential
individuals</a></span> . BGS has also created a new <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/item.cfm?id=9171">Science
Advisory Committee</a></span> chaired by Professor Frances Wall and comprising
a cross section of scientist from government industry and academia. The board
and the committee will allow us to realise our full potential going forwards
and help us deliver the new BGS Science Strategy which will be launched in June
this year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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BGS reported a financial surplus from commercial income in
2017-18 which will invested by NERC UKRI for future year’s activities. Our
staff numbers increased to 640 people at the end of the financial year in 2018
and our consolidated budget was £62.6 million for the period.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In addition to ensuring high-quality geoscience data is
openly available to stakeholders across the UK, as outlined in the review, BGS
made significant investments in Official Development Assistance funding in
three global platforms all linked to the UN sustainability goals. BGS also
started planning for its investment of £38.5 million in UKGEOS, a unique set of
subsurface boreholes and associate geo-science aimed at future energy systems,
which will help provide important information for UK and global decarbonisation
initiatives. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I do hope this Annual Science Review provides you with a
flavour of the Public Science Role of BGS and our research and commercial
activities, all three of which contribute to our success as a world-leading
geoscience institution.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-18459792289118226312018-10-09T09:46:00.001-07:002018-10-09T09:46:42.978-07:00Where is Geoscience going anyway? An opinion.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDBCQp7yh0E2reiC_yTck1auEywZ16QrevhqAcsLVpmAAjbj561A1a0qQf6gFMkAWQl_Rqn5EUXP-cSPeYCRkHwWu7nNQA51IYfBeLnKZecTM0Vremo3Amk1W0u2V8Yd8NqhoVpPmY7g/s1600/JL+Brussels.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDBCQp7yh0E2reiC_yTck1auEywZ16QrevhqAcsLVpmAAjbj561A1a0qQf6gFMkAWQl_Rqn5EUXP-cSPeYCRkHwWu7nNQA51IYfBeLnKZecTM0Vremo3Amk1W0u2V8Yd8NqhoVpPmY7g/s400/JL+Brussels.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At the HORIZON GEOSCIENCE policy dinner debate. <br />
The high level panel debate with (L-R) the host Jonathan Bamber, <br />
EGU President, John Ludden, BGS Director, Lieve Wierinck, MEP, <br />
Jean-Eric Pacquet, DH Research and Innovation and <br />
Vitor Correa, EFG President.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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As Chief Executive of the British Geological Survey I am often invited to talk about the Survey or more often what Earth scientists do in general. These reflections were part of presentations at the Resourcing Future Generations Conference in Vancouver, Canada in June 2018 and will be presented at the Korea Institute of Geology and Minerals (KIGAM) centenary at the end of October 2018 in Busan, Korea. More specifically they were used to prepare a round-table organised by the European Geosciences Union (EGU) and the European Federation of Geologists (EFG) on the role of geoscience in Europe. It provides my view and not necessarily one that is shared by the organisation I run or the earth science community in general. </div>
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1. Introduction </h4>
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I feel it is necessary to start with a definition to set the boundaries of this discussion paper so I turn to Wikipedia: <br />
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<em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_science" target="_blank">Earth science</a> or geoscience is a widely embraced term for the fields of science related to the planet Earth. It is the branch of science dealing with the physical constitution of the earth and its atmosphere. Earth science is the study of our planet’s physical characteristics, from earthquakes to raindrops, and floods to fossils. Earth science is a branch of planetary science, but with a much older history. “Earth science” is a broad term that encompasses four main branches of study, each of which is further broken down into more specialized fields</em> <br />
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In fact much of what I state in this paper is focussed on the “Solid Earth and it’s interfaces” as I am unqualified to discuss the more fluid Earth. However, I suspect that the basic tenets of this discussion: “that scientists need to move to solving problems related to the future of the Earth and the species that live on it (including humans), rather than simply identification of the problems”, is true across the geosciences. <br />
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It is time to move towards provision of environmental and Earth-science solutions that require interdisciplinary science involving engineers and physical scientists as well as the social and economic sciences. <br />
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2. What are some of the fundamental tenets of geoscience? </h4>
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In producing documents to underline the importance of Earth sciences in Europe specifically<br />
<a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/EarthScienceEurope/?src=topNav">https://www.bgs.ac.uk/EarthScienceEurope/?src=topNav</a>, some of us have produced a simple definition of what we think geoscience is all about.<br />
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<ul>
<li>Understanding the dynamic Earth: The internal motor of our planet has built the continents and created a habitat for life. It shapes the Earth’s surface and affects our society on human timescales.</li>
<li>Creating a safe and healthy planet: Minimize the impact of unavoidable natural hazards and build a cleaner, sustainable environment.</li>
<li>Living sustainably on planet Earth: Provide the foundation of the exploration and responsible use of global natural resources, now and in the future.</li>
<li>Driving growth: Find the resources that build economic prosperity, support industry and promote innovative technologies.</li>
<li>Reducing global inequities: Support science, education and industry in developing nations.</li>
</ul>
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3. The big questions are still there and they require discovery science </h4>
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Earth scientists specifically those in university departments, should still pursue the big academic questions with will allow us to discover more about the planet. Although there are many, some of the “big” questions are listed here.<br />
<ul>
<li>How do planets form?</li>
<li>Where did Earth’s water come from?</li>
<li>What causes ice ages?</li>
<li>What causes mass extinctions?</li>
<li>What causes reversals in Earth's magnetic field?</li>
<li>Are there volcanic and earthquake precursors that can lead to useful predictions?</li>
</ul>
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4. There are new drivers for applied geoscience research </h4>
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There are significant problems facing the Earth and the people living on it. A significant effort in research has been in defining the extent of challenges that we are facing, not only with changing climate dynamics but also with population growth and associated urbanisation and resource demand. Solving these challenges require the basic knowledge and public understanding of how the Earth may change in their lifetime or in future generations. Underlying this is the need for data on the Earth system, which will be open to all stakeholders and the public and used to define realistic base lines and models of the Earth (climate, resources, health etc.). This shall form a universal knowledge base on which society, economy and business can define options on how to mitigate or respond to change. <br />
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Notwithstanding this Earth and environmental scientist need to focus efforts more on the solution and not the problem, our research should be increasingly goal directed and should be aimed at achieving practical objectives and outcomes.<br />
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This shift in emphasis will be enabled by a technological revolution, some examples being the increased use of underground sensors, high-resolution visualisation tools such as the <a href="https://www.epos-ip.org/" target="_blank">European Plate Observing System (EPOS)</a> and <a href="http://www.extremeearth.eu/" target="_blank">ExtremeEarth</a>, all associated with super-computers. Additionally the proliferation of low-tech citizen-derived data (smart sensors carried by people, urban sensors etc.) will require curation, analysis and sorting for valuable information that is of use.<br />
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We are in the process of moving away from fossil fuels and essentially decarbonising the planet. The rate at which we achieve this will be driven by economic factors, but many of the low-carbon solutions are geological and they require us to work across the science, engineering and socio-economic spheres. Examples are shale gas extraction, carbon capture and subsurface storage, geothermal energy and energy storage and some forms of waste storage, and all require a more invasive use of the subsurface. The technology to achieve this decarbonisation requires the application of high-resolution geophysical, geochemical and geo-biological processes to engineered solutions.<br />
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We need to make a more effective shift from global geological hazard research to risk-related research. This requires us to effect a shift from identification of hazard from an earthquake, volcano or landslide, to modelling and prediction and communication of geological risk – that is where the hazard affects people’s lives directly.<br />
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Global population management and urban growth require geoscience research in provision of water, food, health services and energy where most needed. Resources will continue to be needed provide wealth to developing nations. Increasingly an integrated approach to resource development (corridors) will require modelling the geology, subsurface use such as groundwater and aggregate availability and associated infrastructure. This is no different to the approach of geological surveys in developed countries, but this needs to be translated globally. I fully anticipate that the rate of digital development in parts of Africa and other developing regions to leap-frog the western-world’s reliance on adapted legacy data-systems.<br />
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Driven most probably by industry, we will explore and inhabit the Moon and other planetary bodies. This will require us to innovate on Earth with remote sensing new quantum sensors and novel construction techniques (eg 3D printing) to be translated to the moon and planets. At the same time we will require new sources of minerals, both on Earth and as we explore our planetary system. This will also lead to a surge in fundamental Earth sciences in domains such as lunar and planetary petrology; it is thus essential that the basic disciplines of earth sciences be maintained.<br />
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Earth scientists have the experience and knowhow to deal with global data sets. They should take the lead in the creation of, and innovation with, multi-disciplinary Earth data sets. This requires us to establish a generic strategy to reconstruct and simulate the multi-level organisation of the Earth for different domains (energy, climate, biodiversity, resources etc.). To calibrate and reinitialize whole Earth system models for the “satellite era” the past ~30 years, including uncertainties on these models. <br />
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We need a platform operated as a community resource that will generate a 3D and time scalable model/representation of the Earth’s environment in time sequences into the future and in parallel, develop a cyber-infrastructure built to meet the current and future needs of Earth and environmental scientists. Including high-resolution environmental modelling from newly acquired observation platforms and networks.<br />
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5. Is our science too parochial and can we undertake some “extreme geoscience”? </h4>
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Drilling the ocean-floor via what is currently the <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/iodp/tands.html" target="_blank">Integrated Ocean Discovery programme (IODP)</a> is about as adventurous as we get in the earth sciences. IODP and similar drilling programmes have produced some good discovery science, but with limited applied science; although industry has used the geological models to refine their strategies. The Planetary science and astronomy community have no qualms with multiple hundreds of millions of dollar missions and infrastructure; we struggle when an operation exceeds ~$20-30 million.<br />
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Let’s get into some geo-engineering – in fact let’s appropriate the geo in geoengineering!<br />
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Can we drill into a magma body and control the magma/fluid system. Both in terms of geothermal energy and magma-engineering to control eruption of magma? Can we seal faults using imaginative mineralogy perhaps mediated through bio-geochemical engineering? Let’s undertake a fully researched hydrofrack, which covers both the optimisation of resource use and assessment of environmental impacts and has full open data release.<br />
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In the UK we do now have <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/funding/available/capital/ukgeos/" target="_blank">UK Geoenergy Observatories</a> which is a significant investment (£31 million capital from <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-energy-and-industrial-strategy" target="_blank">BEIS</a>-funded via <a href="https://nerc.ukri.org/" target="_blank">NERC</a> £7.5 million from BGS. resource to manage UKGEOS and a series of <a href="https://www.ukri.org/" target="_blank">UKRI</a>-funded research programmes) all taking our science in the direction I propose.<br />
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In the marine realm, can we significantly modify coral reef growth rates and enhance CO2 removal using a geo-engineering approach. How can we better manage the ocean floor using robotic technology?<br />
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6. The challenge</h4>
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This opinion piece essentially proposes that Earth scientists need to reconnect discovery science, applied science and translation of science.<br />
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I would state that academics are too focussed on Earth’s history rather than its future and that we as earth scientists should be solving environmental problems rather than simply identifying them?<br />
I also suggest that we need to propose some BIG Earth Science projects that match or exceed those of the planetary scientists and astronomers – even if these are aimed at geo-engineering of the planet they will have significant fundamental research associated with them.<br />
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University research and teaching on oil and gas (and minerals) is decreasing and the concept of leave it (training and research) to the companies is beginning to creep in, as some universities see divestment as a means of attracting students. There may well therefore be a skills shortage in the basic earth sciences (the geo-subject and petro-subjects) developing and the associated industries will struggle to achieve their hiring targets. We thus need to provide new career paths (non-academic) for Earth science students.<br />
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Communication with government and the public will remain a major concern. Fighting public perception on what are perceived as environmentally unacceptable industries, but that provide essential resource remains a problem. We will be required to train students and be prepared as professional geologists to dealing with tougher environmental regulations, greater public scrutiny and will need better links with socio-economic research.British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-41181698872427193452018-07-30T04:40:00.001-07:002018-07-30T04:40:43.751-07:00The BGS Board, its Terms of Reference and Minutes of the first meeting (April 2018)<br />
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I blogged previously about the creation of the BGS Board and
the quality of non-executive members that we managed to attract. It is a truly
dynamic group of people which will help nurture and challenge BGS and if you
have not yet checked out who is on the Board, I encourage you to do so <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/boardBiogs.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We will be releasing summary minutes of the BGS Board
meetings and activities in which they are involved. You can find the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/docs/BGS_Board_01_27April2018_summary_approved.pdf" target="_blank">summary of the first meeting</a>, along with the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/docs/Approved_Terms_of_Reference_10_July_2018.pdf" target="_blank">Terms of Reference</a> for the Board. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As would be expected, the Board will have oversight of both
the operational and strategic activities of BGS. Our Chair of the Board, Sir
Keith O’Nions, will report to the Executive Chair of NERC-UKRI, thus assuring
governance relationships are appropriate. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We have already strengthened our Health and Safety
activities and the Board congratulated BGS on being one of the first science
institutes in the UK in receiving ISO 45001 Accreditation. <o:p></o:p></div>
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BGS has adjusted its financial reporting to ensure full
understanding by the Board, moving towards an accounting presentation that is
more suited to the BGS mixed financial culture, with its Public Role and
Research and Private sector sources of funding and spending.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As you will know, BGS is refreshing its strategy and will
develop a new Business Plan in the coming months. We are also creating a new
science governance structure which will involve the creation of an external
Science Advisory Committee (SAC). The advertisement for the roles on the committee
can be found at <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/SACRecruitmentAdvertJuly2018.pdf" target="_blank">here</a></span>.</span>
We would encourage staff to share the advert with senior science/data leaders
from our stakeholders and partners.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As part of their induction, our Board members participated
in a seminar looking at our Public Role and how we define and refine this for
the future. I enclose a <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=3410" target="_blank">slide pack</a> that I used to outline this to the
Board.<o:p></o:p></div>
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John Ludden<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br />British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-57854257498832982262018-05-01T05:25:00.004-07:002018-05-02T03:13:16.102-07:00BGS enters a new era<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BGS is about to enter a new era. It is moving from <a href="https://nerc.ukri.org/">NERC</a> as its legal owner to the newly created <a href="https://www.ukri.org/">UK Research and Innovation</a> (UKRI), and has created a BGS board that will function as if BGS is an arms length GovCo. The intention of this is to put BGS into the most appropriate governance structure so that it will flourish. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Following the nomination of Sir Keith O’Nions as Board chair, BGS now has a board whose <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/boardBiogs.html" target="_blank">membership</a> covers the spectrum from survey, academia, government and industry. The board will engage with the BGS executive in deciding how best to place BGS in the mix from government advice underpinned by research, innovation and also niche commercial activities. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BGS will work closely with NERC still, although its public good activities will be overseen by the Board and independent review. We will operate the Earth sector facilities for NERC and will continue to engage with key partnerships with university departments in the earth and environment sector. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The opportunity to operate in the new UKRI environment will allow synergies with other research council agendas and also with InnovateUK and play a role in the UK industrial strategy and global programmes led from UKRI. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">BGS finished the past financial year with a planned surplus and an increase in staff numbers to ~ 640. Here is the summary <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/boardPresentations.html" target="_blank">corporate PowerPoint </a>that I presented to the first BGS Board meeting on Friday 27th April.
</span>British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-52326396296978062902017-12-18T02:49:00.001-08:002017-12-18T02:49:08.819-08:00The BGS Annual Review
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</span></div>
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dear
Friend of BGS<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I
enclose here our <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=3213" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Annual Review</span></a> for 2016-2017 </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><br /></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BGS
is healthy as you will realise when you read the report. We are a diverse
organisation working at the cutting edge of solving research problems in earth
and environmental sciences. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We
are about to embark on a new era with the creation of a BGS board, which will
be chaired by <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/2017/Sir-Keith-O'Nions-named-as-Chair-of-BGS-Board.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Sir Keith O'Nions</span></a> and will be starting the search procedure
to fill the posts on the BGS Board. <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/BoardMemberRecruitment_advert_2017-11-29_V2.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Please apply</span></a> if you feel you can contribute to BGS at this
level.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="color: black;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
report is organised around our regional impacts including global science.</span></span></span></span><br />
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British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-83450983610815253242017-07-13T07:35:00.000-07:002017-07-13T07:35:38.300-07:00The BGS core science programme<p>Royal assent has allowed the passage into law of the Higher Education and Research Act (2017). It is expected
that UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will be properly established in April 2018, following an implementation
period. A UKRI Executive Committee comprising the CEOs of the research councils has been created that will
ensure overall strategic coherence and maximise effective working across the entirety of UKRI. Through this
transition, the BGS will seek the freedoms to allow it to flourish as a survey and, as you will see, we
have already made significant progress in this.</p>
<p>We are in a period where BGS funding is relatively secure (Figure 1), although the funding we receive from
government, currently via the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk" target="_blank">Natural Environment Research Council</a> (NERC), is increasingly targeted (Figure 2). This does mean that we will have to suspend some activities or reduce them, while increasing others. This is of course an ongoing activity, but is more acute this year than in the past.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgdH1WRS9dsbVqM4KB1M16pfXH33QpPC3z1fWpX9xVq78RBxGKcGi45Oy25fSi2dsNToNnJ__5Jg4WQUo-uRUFQ5hduB5wzXjTC22bjH0RyJ5AyP07QPNxx0kxl7ndlWR9XjWRDY1tNMvj/s1600/Fig1_v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgdH1WRS9dsbVqM4KB1M16pfXH33QpPC3z1fWpX9xVq78RBxGKcGi45Oy25fSi2dsNToNnJ__5Jg4WQUo-uRUFQ5hduB5wzXjTC22bjH0RyJ5AyP07QPNxx0kxl7ndlWR9XjWRDY1tNMvj/s640/Fig1_v2.jpg" width="640" height="285" data-original-width="976" data-original-height="435" /></a></div>
<p>The BGS has agreed with NERC that our core budget will be ring fenced and clearly directed to national
and public good (NPG) activities, including the research lines that underpin these activities and ensure that we
retain our excellence as a geological survey. This explicit recognition of our NPG role is powerful for us. We
will continue to compete for research council grants and will have a strong industrial and innovation portfolio in
addition to having our own commercial interests. To oversee the core budget spending and activities in general,
NERC will create a BGS board and will be appointing the members in the coming months.</p>
<p>Our projected annual expenditure is forecast at £47.6 million in 2017–18, together with capital investment of
£10 million. Our staff levels have been managed down to about 580 in recent years, although associated with the
development of a major infrastructure activity (see UKGEOS) we will be increasing our headcount this coming
year for the first time in a decade.</p>
<h3>Official Development Assistance (ODA)</h3>
<p>The budget for the UK research councils was inflated in the current comprehensive spending review (CSR)
settlement by a significant amount for Official Development Assistance (ODA). Some of this has been earmarked
for NERC, and an amount that corresponds to about 15 per cent of the BGS core NERC budget has been identified
for us to spend over the current CSR period. This means that we will need to reassign some UK national
activities to overseas activities.</p>
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<p>We are developing three platforms to respond to this: one around east African geoscience and resilience, one on
south-east Asian megacities and their hinterland catchments, and one on global geological risk. These will allow
us to position the BGS for additional competitive funding streams in the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF)
where the majority of these ODA funds reside inside UKRI.</p>
<h3>UK GeoEnergy Observatories (UKGEOS)</h3>
<p>The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has now approved this capital project and
£31 million will be invested over two years to create world-class, subsurface energy-research test centres operated
by the BGS.</p>
<p>UKGEOS will provide scientific energy-related test beds in two geologically different locations in the UK. Each
site will comprise a network of deep and shallow boreholes, enabling geoscientists to undertake long-term
observation of the subsurface for the first time and in unprecedented detail. They will deliver new information
for the interpretation, modelling and monitoring of the environment from the surface down to more than 1500 m.</p>
<p>The BGS will target about 15 per cent of its core funding to operate these sites.</p>
<h3>Innovation funding</h3>
The BGS is an institution that sits in an applied-science space between fundamental research, innovation and
commercialisation. In the future, we will explicitly map our innovation funding to science directorates with
clear key-performance indicators and evaluation of outcomes. We will provide internal, flexible funding to
respond to opportunities, developing our innovation pipeline in a timely way. At the same time, we will invest
in an innovation hub that will include machine-technology capabilities. We expect this strategy to align with
future UKRI industrial strategy and regional development. The yearly investment corresponds to approximately
another 15 per cent of the core budget for the coming three years.</p>
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<h3>EU funding</h3>
<p>About five per cent of BGS funding comes from the EU and a significant part of this is associated with infrastructure
development (field laboratories and data) and in some cases we lead the core services in these infrastructures.
We are hopeful that the UK will continue to invest in EU infrastructure, especially as some of these facilities
are key to UK international competitiveness.</p>
<h3>BGS staff and programme reorganisation</h3>
<p>The overall budget for the BGS is shown in the pie charts Figures 1, 2 and 3. It is evident that once the costs of information
development and management are taken into account, the balance of core budget that can be assigned to
other NPG tasks is limited.</p>
<p>To be more effective, the BGS will restructure its directorates. We will reassign staff in the geology and
regional geophysics and land, soils and coast directorates and embed them in key directorates, thus bringing
our activities closer to partners, users and markets.</p>
<p>Across the BGS there will be focus on three challenges: </p>
<ol><li>decarbonisation of power production, heat, transport and industry</li>
<li>environmental change adaptation</li>
<li>natural geological hazard and risk</li></ol>
<p>Our major science effort will be in harnessing our new infrastructure including UKGEOS; our activities in sub-seafloor
science; catchment observatories, and global hazard observatories.</p>
<p>In general, there will be a reduced focus on rocks and sediments as indicators of past events and a corresponding
increase in focus on rocks as conduits for processes that affect lives and livelihoods. Improved methods of
storing and delivering information within the BGS will allow greater efficiency and an ability to do "more with
less". We will also seek new ways of funding our activities through interaction with government and the private
sector.</p>
<p>At the same time, we will enhance our regional delivery for England, in addition to that which is already
specific for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We have created a Wales and south-west England focus
from the Cardiff office, which has recently relocated to the Cardiff University campus. Moving our Edinburgh office to the Lyell
Centre on the Heriot-Watt campus, along with our marine infrastructure facility, has brought a new focus to
BGS Scotland. From England we will deliver a south and south-east England regional geology hub; a Midlands
(including East Anglia) hub, and a northern England hub. All of these regional and devolved administration
activities will have a presence in regional partnerships.</p>
<p>Most importantly, the BGS will continue to have geologists with feet on the ground to ensure that we develop
a more dynamic geological map, including real-time data acquisition. We will thus enhance our training and
continuous professional development for field geologists.</p>
<p>Overall, the BGS is about to undertake its biggest transformation since joining NERC in 1965. It will gain
more independence than it has had in 50 years. Technological development in sensors, high-volume computing,
and visualisation and modelling are driving us to a new form of geological survey, and we are leading the
world's surveys in many of these activities. At the same time, international opportunities are growing through
GCRF funding, an expanding DfID programme, and more global impact in general.</p>
<p>The BGS will greatly benefit from the new freedoms and flexibilities afforded to it in a new governance
structure. We will continue to forge partnerships in the UK and globally with institutes, universities and
industry, while maintaining our independence and social responsibility.</p>
<p>Prof John Ludden<br />
Executive Director</p>
©British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-25320501177973343942016-11-21T06:29:00.001-08:002016-11-21T06:29:30.410-08:00BGS Annual Science Review<div class="MsoNormal">
I am pleased to present the BGS <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/annualreport/" target="_blank">Annual Science Review</a> for
2015/16.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the review we have chosen to focus on the BGS working
with nations; the devolved administrations of the UK and nations globally. Our strategy is focused on state of-the-art
geological modelling and technology for monitoring the subsurface with our aim for
people to feel confident that we know what is below their feet and how this
will be managed and may change during their lifetimes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We have activities in all parts of the UK and worked in 79
countries globally. Environmental monitoring and modelling were a strong focus
in all of our UK activities this year: working on baseline monitoring for
potential future shale gas extraction in northern England; monitoring heat from
abandoned mine waters in South Wales and Glasgow, and subsidence monitoring of
abandoned mines in Northern Ireland with the Geological Survey of Northern
Ireland (GSNI). <o:p></o:p></div>
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On the energy front, we worked as part of a national effort
on carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Wales and looked at the sub-Irish sea
floor CO2 storage potential. We are also part of the UK CCS group in Edinburgh,
and are still helping out South Africa in CCS and shale gas development. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Infrastructure and data to support infrastructure
development remain key parts of the BGS and we released software packages that
allow better definition of borehole data and visualisation of geological
cross-sections via ‘Groundhog’. In response to a recommendation by a
Parliamentary report on unconventional gas, we released a database on the
regional stress field that will be of use in subsurface activities including
‘fracking’, geothermal and energy storage. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Our public-good-facing activities are underpinned by
state-of-the-art applied research, and our outputs in publications have almost
doubled in five years with a marked shift towards high-impact outputs in highly
rated science <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">journals;
in 2015-16 we wrote ~300 papers of which ~30% were in Impact Factor 5 or above
publications. </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><br /></a></div>
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We moved our science base in Scotland to a new home, the
Lyell Centre, at Heriot-Watt University (HWU), Edinburgh. Our staff are in a
fully open and modern building shared with HWU and we also moved our marine
operations <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">onsite<span style="font-size: 10.6667px;">.</span></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZfxbk1x1u5QTI5BgcIe0YCSI3khiY7GZmqd-sYncdJ2RIks59aDxQZCfx3ZL_xDlpCGnQaNEXyhMS37bjDnPSk-nGQBQRSX4W-xtPPluK292w4VhsE5qfpYTZ5-F2JYVcdgrwwJu8cs/s1600/LyellTwitterBackground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwZfxbk1x1u5QTI5BgcIe0YCSI3khiY7GZmqd-sYncdJ2RIks59aDxQZCfx3ZL_xDlpCGnQaNEXyhMS37bjDnPSk-nGQBQRSX4W-xtPPluK292w4VhsE5qfpYTZ5-F2JYVcdgrwwJu8cs/s640/LyellTwitterBackground.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lyell Centre, BGS's new home in Scotland</td></tr>
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This significantly strengthens our
visibility and presence in Scotland. In 2017, we will move into the Cardiff
University campus and hope to achieve the same for GSNI with Queen’s University
of Belfast, thus creating strong academic links in all parts of the UK.</div>
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Looking forward to 2016/17 we are starting with a balanced
budget, significant capital infrastructure investment in the energy sector and
a growing overseas development programme as part of the new Research Councils
UK Global Challenges programme.<o:p></o:p></div>
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British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-48108752285258348692016-08-02T02:39:00.001-07:002016-08-02T02:39:19.054-07:00BGS welcomes the Keyworth and District Footpath Association (KADFA)<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The BGS headquarters is
located in Keyworth on the outskirts of Nottingham. We are a somewhat enigmatic
place that the locals view as a positive asset to a small dormitory town to
Nottingham. We know that they wonder what goes on behind the hedges and they
have no idea how far back the site reaches. It is thus a pleasure that we
welcomed the Keyworth Walking Club on site as part of this year’s walking
programme.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">They were met by me
and then received an amusing and factual account of how the geological walkway
was put together from <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/6095.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">Steve Parry</span></a> of BGS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3e0aYVou03Yq4qGbqH4ljg_W86CXYju9rDZbS6qF75_PxoDIkXzXOnWp4R61BbG9fnAjgV20zVkQO8ax2khgfGpwlAibBP9TzYe12OE7dUaIuCIfuQCXZANPruV97FpCoMRSh7VYM60/s1600/Steve_Parry+and+KWC.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3e0aYVou03Yq4qGbqH4ljg_W86CXYju9rDZbS6qF75_PxoDIkXzXOnWp4R61BbG9fnAjgV20zVkQO8ax2khgfGpwlAibBP9TzYe12OE7dUaIuCIfuQCXZANPruV97FpCoMRSh7VYM60/s640/Steve_Parry+and+KWC.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr Steve Parry introduces the BGS Geological Walkway</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">The tour ended in the
Core Store (<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/NGR/home.html"><span style="color: #0563c1;">National Geological Repository</span></a>) which is an
impressive thing to have on your door step, whilst not knowing it. It
allowed me to pass on a message about energy security and answer questions
on geohazards and reassure the locals that we are doing a good job for the UK
and globally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Tr9i4w1K9l6zTGNyIjo-Io3xKM26jh3evbRresoDLvsK1EKKB2YFFKcanV7u3Cv7FBOzShywUADePISau4jDRAOC2e89QQUrO6TkYQsltDrVAEJ3ViydtyLnX8v6j_aHQ4_l9i8XcfI/s1600/JohnLudden+Core+Store.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Tr9i4w1K9l6zTGNyIjo-Io3xKM26jh3evbRresoDLvsK1EKKB2YFFKcanV7u3Cv7FBOzShywUADePISau4jDRAOC2e89QQUrO6TkYQsltDrVAEJ3ViydtyLnX8v6j_aHQ4_l9i8XcfI/s640/JohnLudden+Core+Store.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me introducing the impressive Core Store on site at Keyworth</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Trevor Lax of KADFA said
"We had a tremendous morning being shown around BGS. Steve, who took us on
the Geological Walk was "top class". His talk was very informative
and good humoured. John Ludden was so knowledgable and enthusiastic about the
most valuable work BGS carries out. It was a great community event. Thank you
to all who made it happen." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photos courtesy of Trevor Lax, KADFA.</span><br />
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British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-11656370488849544682016-07-12T02:23:00.001-07:002016-07-12T02:23:39.222-07:00BGS and the EU referendum<div class="MsoNormal">
BGS employs the best people for the job regardless of their
nationality and we will always do this. I sincerely hope that the UK government
will make it as easy as possible for us to maintain a free flow of talented
staff in the future.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I have been very impressed while talking to staff recently
of the degree of commitment to BGS and the firm belief that it is a great
organisation to work for. I realise that inside BGS there are staff who will have
voted Remain and Brexit and we absolutely respect the democratic decision of the UK
public.</div>
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I fully expect that we will develop strong EU partnerships
in the future but the way these are developed may well have to change. Irrespective of funding developments, I am sure BGS will be
remain a highly effective organisation and currently we are in a very strong
position in all of our science and data areas.</div>
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I invited all non-UK European colleagues to write to me with
their concerns and I offered to send their letter to Jo Johnston the
Universities and Science minister. You can read the letter that we have sent to him <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/JoJohnsonmp5July2016.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-15636395462561669352016-04-13T07:08:00.000-07:002016-04-13T07:08:59.420-07:00BGS getting down to business<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The British Geological Survey
released its <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=3089" target="_blank">Business Plan</a> (BP) for the three year period starting April 2016. This plan underpins the BGS strategy “<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/home.html" target="_blank">Gateway to the Earth</a>”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">BGS is constantly reviewing its
science priorities and these have largely moved towards a programme of
harnessing new technology to instrument the Earth so that we understand
geological processes in real time. This will help society to:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Use its natural resources responsibly</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Manage environmental change</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-indent: -18pt;">Be resilient to environmental hazards</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">As part of our business planning we
will be implementing the £31 million Energy Security and Innovation Observing
System (<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/esios/home.html" target="_blank">ESIOS</a>) to underpin new developments in subsurface energy
management. This will be supported by BGS being part of a Midlands regional
capital investment in partnership with Midlands Innovation “<a href="http://www.era.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Energy Research Accelerator</a> (ERA)" of £60 million, plus a twice this amount in
supporting funding from industry. BGS will be required to resource both of these
capital investments in providing technological development and operation and
undertaking new research with partners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">At the same time the new BGS Business Plan sees a significant upscaling of our overseas activities, largely in
response to targeted funding on Overseas development for UK government as part
of the Global Challenges Research fund and also the Newton fund. We anticipate
that as much as 30% of BGS activities may be redirected overseas in support of
development, but at the same time underpinning UK government policy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">BGS will enhance its position in the
UK devolved governments; in Scotland at the Lyell Centre which we will be
developing with Heriot-Watt University and in Cardiff and Belfast in
co-locating with Cardiff University and Queens Belfast. We will further enhance
our activities with the University of Nottingham and other partner universities
through key joint ventures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Within the period of the Business Plan BGS hopes to have moved from its current position within the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">NaturalEnvironmental Research Council</a> (NERC) UK to a Government corporation alongside
similar bodies to ourselves (such as the Met office, Ordnance Survey and the National Physical
Laboratory) which advise government and work at the cusp of academic research
industry and government.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">John Ludden<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-40528336991423052782016-03-21T06:52:00.000-07:002016-03-21T06:52:09.092-07:00How is the BGS responding to the urgent challenge set out by the Paris accord?<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Paris climate summit proposed some stringent targets
for global warming and emissions. These can only be reached if we manage to
engineer a reduction in greenhouse gas output and currently the main means of
achieving this are switching to gas away from coal and deploying renewable
energy and increased nuclear sourced energy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS was asked by <a href="https://www.foe.co.uk/" target="_blank">Friends of the Earth</a> how we were
responding to the Paris decisions and the BGS Director of Science and Technology has produced a reply which is copied below. <br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS provides scientific evidence on subsurface processes
that are relevant to the economy of the UK, and may be used by government in
support of policy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Response to Friends
of the Earth</span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Introduction</span></h3>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is an internationally recognised centre
in several sciences that contribute to lower emissions, including carbon capture
and storage, geothermal and the siting of offshore wind farms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carbon capture and storage</span></span></b></h3>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Predictions like those of the
<a href="http://www.iea.org/" target="_blank">International Energy Agency</a>’s (IEA) </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">New Policies Scenario</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
suggest that coal will continue to be used heavily in the future, and will probably
remain the backbone of global electricity generation for many years to come.
This underlines the need for a switch away from coal, and for the coal that is
to be burnt to be used in power stations that are fitted with carbon capture
and storage facilities. A look at three large countries with big coal resources,
China, India and South Africa, illustrates the problem. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">China is by far the largest coal
consumer in the world, accounting for almost half of global coal use in 2010.
In the IEA </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">New Policies Scenario, China’s coal
demand will increase to over 2850 million tonnes per year by 2020, and
stabilise above 2800 million tonnes until 2035. Coal will continue to provide
more than half of China’s electricity until 2035</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">. Similarly in the New Policies Scenario, South
African coal production, which is mainly for electricity, will peak around 2020
but continue to be high into the future. India is struggling to electrify its
rural economy and it is likely that much of this electricity will </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">come from coal.</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Europe
for 2020, the EU has committed to cutting its greenhouse gas emissions to 20%
below 1990 levels, and further cuts are being decided for 2050. This commitment
is one of the headline targets of the Europe 2020 growth strategy and is being
implemented through binding legislation. Power generation will have to take a
particularly large part in emissions reductions, mainly by focussing on
increasing surface renewables (wind, tidal and solar), nuclear and geothermal
power, but it is likely that carbon capture and storage on fossil fuel power
plants will be important.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Carbon capture and storage may be
particularly important for the </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">2°C limit set at COP 21, in Paris in December. Most of the
<a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a>’s (IPCC) scenarios limiting global
temperature increases to 2 °C include some form of ‘negative emissions’ or
permanent removal of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the atmosphere. Of the
400 IPCC climate scenarios that have a 50% or better chance of less than 2 °C
warming, more than 300 assume the successful and large-scale uptake of
negative-emission technologies. The most popular of these is Bioenergy with
Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). BECCS involves growing energy crops for power
stations for electricity and scrubbing out the CO2 in the flue gas for permanent
sequestration in the subsurface. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The main
constraints on BECCS are how much land and resource can be devoted to biofuel
crops, and how much subsurface storage space for carbon dioxide there is. The
first is a difficult problem and not within BGS’ remit. Given the weight that
the IPCC gives to BECCS there is an urgent need to explore the potential
ecological limits to, and environmental impacts of, implementation of BECCS at a
scale relevant to climate change mitigation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">BGS main
research in CCS involves questions over the feasibility of large scale geological
storage of carbon dioxide. Though in Norway two deep subsurface sites 20
million tonnes of carbon dioxide have been safely stored, other geological environments
must be tested and it is vital that more demonstration and full scale schemes
are started, like the Aquistore scheme in south-eastern Saskatchewan where
40000 tonnes of carbon dioxide has been safely stored, and where </span>1100
tonnes of CO2 are injected per day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Geothermal</span></span></b></h3>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is researching the feasibility of
geothermal heat for residential and civic use including the use of disused mine
workings as a geothermal resource in urban areas, geothermal from deep sedimentary
rocks, and ground source heat pumps. Geothermal could be an important way for
the UK to achieve its goals in emissions reduction.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although the UK is not actively volcanic,
there is still a substantial resource of geothermal energy at shallow depths
but it is exploited in different ways. The upper 10–15 m of the ground is
heated by solar radiation and acts a heat store. This heat can be utilised by
ground source heat pumps that can substantially reduce heating bills and reduce
emissions. The heat from the sun is conducted downwards into the ground. At a
depth of about 15 metres, ground temperatures are not influenced by seasonal
air temperature changes and tend to remain stable all year around at about the
mean annual air temperature (9–13°C in the UK). Hence, the ground at this depth
is cooler than the air in summer and warmer than the air in winter. This
temperature difference is exploited by ground source heat pumps that are used
for heating and/or cooling of homes and office buildings. There are different
types of systems which can be broadly grouped into closed-loop systems and
open-loop systems.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With increasing depth, the ground
temperatures are also affected by the heat conducted upwards from the Earth's
core and mantle, known as the geothermal heat flow. When combined with the
thermal conductivities of the rocks this allows the prediction of subsurface
temperatures. The UK's geothermal gradient, the rate at which the Earth's
temperature increases with depth, has an average value of 26°C per km. Some
rocks contain free flowing water (groundwater) and so at depth this water will
be warm and can be extracted for use in district heating schemes or for
industrial uses such as heating green houses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are also regions in the UK where
the rocks at depth are hotter than expected. This occurs in granite areas
because some granite generates internal heat through the radioactive decay of
the naturally occurring elements potassium, uranium and thorium. Granites have
very little free flowing water, but it is possible to engineer the fracture
system such that water can be made to flow from one borehole to another through
the granite. The extracted hot water is at a sufficiently high temperature to
drive an electricity generating turbine. Parts of Cornwall have geothermal
gradients that are significantly higher than the UK average due to the presence
of granite and have potential for geothermal power generation.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Offshore wind turbines</span></span></b></h3>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The <a href="http://www.maremap.ac.uk/index.html" target="_blank">Marine Environmental Mapping Programme</a> (MAREMAP) and the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), both of
which BGS is a part, are coordinated efforts to improve seafloor and shallow
geological mapping to establish the ground and geotechnical conditions for many
offshore wind turbines. </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The
shallow geology can produce impacts and constraints on design, installation and
operation of</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">seabed structures and sub-seabed foundations. Some of these
constraints relate to the</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">variability in the composition and
distribution of Quaternary sediments (at the seabed and in the</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">subsurface)
and bedrock within the first 50 m below the seafloor.</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Additionally,
other constraints relate to the geological processes that have occurred in the
past or are</span><span style="background: white; color: #252127; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">active today. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">s well as
these sciences aimed at direct emissions reduction, BGS is working intensively
on the effects of coming climate change, including on groundwater levels (in the
UK and in Africa), landscape and erosion, and sea level. We are working with a
whole range of partners on how these changes can be forecasted and planned for
so that society is more resilient to change.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is, of
course, interested in all other areas of research into emissions reduction and
climate change science and welcomes discussions on its science strategy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prof Mike Stephenson<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Director of Science and Technology, BGS</span></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-59909911062726303932016-03-14T07:21:00.001-07:002016-03-14T07:21:42.436-07:00The British Geological Survey in 2016<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is continually refreshing itself,
ensuring that it is relevant and provides up to date geological science
solutions for the UK and globally. </span><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Regular', serif; font-size: 17pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have used this </span><a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/news/docs/TheBritishGeologicalSurvey2016.pdf" style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">presentation</a><span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> at various events to outline the British Geological Survey (BGS), what it does and who it works with. The
presentation also includes information on our discussions with government and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC),
on the best place to house BGS in the future to give us the flexibility to
provide impact that will help the UK economy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">On numerous recent occasions with
stakeholders, we have concluded that BGS should move from NERC ownership to a
Government owned public corporation. BGS has welcomed visits from
international geoscience agencies and surveys, many of whom view BGS as a model
geological survey. We have had discussions with universities who are interested
in partnerships and especially combining our applied science and theirs in
creating joint research initiatives that will yield impact. BGS has worked
hard on developing links with other research centres and government departments.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Please browse through the slides ... not
only do they show how BGS geological mapping science has changed over time, who
we partner with, how we deliver world-class infrastructure but they underline
the importance of a dynamic workforce. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">John Ludden</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 2016</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-55226829190725747612015-12-01T04:43:00.000-08:002015-12-04T02:01:52.729-08:00BGS and the Comprehensive Spending Review 2015<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Chancellor released his </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/479749/52229_Blue_Book_PU1865_Web_Accessible.pdf"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Comprehensive
Spending Review</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (CSR) this week. It is fair to say that our worst fear of a
cut to research funding was not realised and, to his credit, the Chancellor has
kept the research baseline funding at real costs - this means in line with
inflation and better than the cash settlement we were expecting as a "best
case" scenario. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Nonetheless we should expect all of the extra funding from
real cost to be targeted on specific projects most probably involving global
development.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nonetheless, the CSR does place a significant
part of the research budget in a global challenges fund and as yet it is not
clear how this will be managed; it could be top sliced or accounted for in the
different parts of the new Research UK structure, which is likely to become a
reality. Thus the various parts of the research base will report into a
director of Research UK in line with the recommendations of the </span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nurse-review-of-research-councils-recommendations"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Nurse
review</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, which recommends keeping the research councils, but
strengthening their overall leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BGS should be able to exploit the interface
with a number of the research areas of Research UK and it is good that this is
now an explicit opportunity, rather than something to be encouraged. However,
the way research and innovation funding is awarded and evaluated will change in
the next few years and BGS needs to be prepared to defend with quantitative
based metrics, both its research and its public good value. I also note that the research council has yet
to decide its different allocations to individual councils and then internally
within NERC.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Midlands </span><a href="http://www.era.ac.uk/"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Energy Research Accelerator</span></a><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (ERA)
was allocated a £60 million and the Energy Test Bed in Chester were cited. Thus
we are well positioned in the geoenergy area, with investment in gas, new
nuclear and energy storage. Notwithstanding this, the decision to remove
the funding from the Carbon Capture and Storage pilot projects is perplexing
and we will need to evaluate where best BGS should be positioning itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Major infrastructure and capital investments
were also outlined and BGS will need to provide the underpinning geological
models.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Although the
result is positive for science, both in research (discovery and applied) and
innovation, this does not affect the restructuring plan that we have announced.
</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">The
significant pay cost pressures on our budget from 2016/17 mean that BGS must
create budgetary headroom and restructuring will enable it to position itself
for new opportunities in the geoenergy, data and natural hazards areas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Repositioning BGS in the science landscape
will be a priority in the coming months as the Research UK budget develops.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Finally, I commend the 2014-15 <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/annualreport/home.html">BGS Annual Review</a> in
which we intentionally focussed on the Public Good values of BGS, please read
it: the science it outlines is excellent (sorry we cannot put all of it in a
short report) and the format and presentation superb. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-75752861597780147302015-01-15T02:00:00.000-08:002015-01-15T08:17:41.170-08:00Baseline Monitoring in Lancashire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEHHpXmkvI2mmdu_-bxoVr2TN4o8y4nUmjSAwD-NpcDfigFtjC7TvS7fcq5RgMmxTC7nXkB5BeWbdQQVxFUJQ4QUggey2mtt4hMZo_W38T8qiKo5psbonKpByj_wqV8mabdcHzKTjDJ4/s1600/MonitoringOfMethaneInGroundwater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSEHHpXmkvI2mmdu_-bxoVr2TN4o8y4nUmjSAwD-NpcDfigFtjC7TvS7fcq5RgMmxTC7nXkB5BeWbdQQVxFUJQ4QUggey2mtt4hMZo_W38T8qiKo5psbonKpByj_wqV8mabdcHzKTjDJ4/s1600/MonitoringOfMethaneInGroundwater.jpg" height="313" width="320" /></a></div>
BGS is about to begin an enhanced baseline monitoring programme across the UK at locations with a potential for shale gas and oil. This will take place at sites where an operator's licence is held and planning permission has been approved for testing shale gas extraction. BGS plans to start field work in the north-west where the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Natural Environment Research Council</a> (NERC) has approved the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/shalegas/lancashireMonitoring.html" target="_blank">Lancashire Monitoring Programme</a> as Public Good research.<br />
<br />
We intend to monitor<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/home.html?src=topNav" target="_blank">Groundwater</a> – including baseline and ongoing groundwater monitoring for chemistry, dissolved gases (such as methane), stable isotopes, organics, residence time indicators, and naturally occurring radionuclides (NORM) </li>
<li>Induced <a href="http://www.earthquakes.bgs.ac.uk/monitoring/home.html" target="_blank">seismicity</a> related to fracking </li>
<li>Baseline for operational fugitive emissions and air quality assessment </li>
<li>Ground motion (subsidence and uplift) - through iSBAS ground motion <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/earthHazards/epom/SatelliteInSAR.html" target="_blank">inSAR</a> </li>
<li>Fluid flowback from the fracking process </li>
</ol>
All data and interpretations will be made available through new webpages on the BGS website which are currently being developed.<br />
<br />
Initially, two operators, Centrica and Cuadrilla, have agreed to provide access to their data and operations for the science-based monitoring programme, from baseline measurements through to hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) and production tests to post operation (abandonment). We will do this with a consortium involving the universities of <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/index.aspx" target="_blank">Birmingham</a>, <a href="http://www.bris.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Bristol</a>, <a href="http://www.liv.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Liverpool</a>, <a href="http://www.lboro.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Loughborough</a> and <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Manchester</a> and the <a href="http://www.faam.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements</a> (FAAM) operated by the <a href="https://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/" target="_blank">National Centre for Atmospheric Science</a> (NCAS).<br />
<br />
Our scientists and those of our partners have already started planning field activities and will be intensifying actions in the region in February 2015.<br />
<br />
We consider that this programme will:<br />
<ul>
<li>Help regulators refine their protocols for the UK shale industry </li>
<li>Inform the public, concerned groups and operators on baseline levels in the immediate area of a shale gas extraction site </li>
<li>Provide the public with information and understanding on the effects of shale gas extraction </li>
<li>Improve scientific understanding of the UK sub-surface environment for unconventional hydrocarbons which is significantly different to that of the USA and Canada </li>
<li>Facilitate new sensor technology development for environmental monitoring </li>
<li>Help establish good practice for industries involved in the development of unconventional hydrocarbons</li>
<li>Establish world-leading expertise</li>
</ul>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-81354182044347550062014-12-12T00:48:00.005-08:002014-12-12T00:48:35.665-08:00Geochemical data for the south-west<div class="s2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span class="s3"><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/" target="_blank">BGS</a> with a
suite of partners including <a href="http://www.ceh.ac.uk/" target="_blank">CEH</a>, <a href="http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/" target="_blank">BAS</a> and universities ran <a href="http://www.tellusgb.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Tellus south-west</a> in
2013. This was the first such survey which involved the traditional
Tellus <a href="http://www.tellusgb.ac.uk/Geophysics.html" target="_blank">geophysical suite</a> of acquisition and also high resolution lidar
and also multispectral analysis. These were complemented by the <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/gbase/" target="_blank">G-BASE</a> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">programme of </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">systematic sampling and
the determination of chemical elements in samples of stream sediment, stream
water and soil in the region. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">The Tellus approach is state of the art
in terms of provision of baseline information and underpins the BGS core role
in survey which is</span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">to
provide a marker of the current state of the environment for the measurement
and monitoring of future change.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="s2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />
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<div class="s2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6">In particular the G-BASE data allows us
to assess </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">the
condition and health of soils and sediments for agricultural and ecosystem
functions </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">and
quantify </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">human
impact on the environment, indicating elevated </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">concentrations of potential
harmful elements. Furthermore it permits the identification</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> of new opportunities for
the responsible use of natural resources.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPebLVoIuD2pUBcadSfiZ5_7gus4cJa5rrYx9F6pWwFftNPDcKZm4FGG90cP_2_c3TwoqF0KukRorbG7ydw9RLX1O8rnV4vhXCy8A5QC2nbGSqqbMXK3NMKEsezS-lP8tFqmz_omgwyw/s1600/W_sedis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPebLVoIuD2pUBcadSfiZ5_7gus4cJa5rrYx9F6pWwFftNPDcKZm4FGG90cP_2_c3TwoqF0KukRorbG7ydw9RLX1O8rnV4vhXCy8A5QC2nbGSqqbMXK3NMKEsezS-lP8tFqmz_omgwyw/s1600/W_sedis.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><br />
<div class="s2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s6">I am pleased to announce the publication
of the G-BASE data set for the south-west that will complement Tellus. Our staff
have collected and analysed data </span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="s3">from 3779 stream </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">sediment,</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> and 1154 soil samples in </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cornwall and parts of Devon and
Somerset. </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Analytical
data are available for Ag, Al, As, Ba, Bi, Br, Ca, Cd, Ce, Cl, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu,
Fe, Ga, Ge, Hf, I, In, K, La, Mg, Mn, Mo, Na, Nb, Nd, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, S, Sb, Sc,
Se, Si, Sm, Sn, Sr, Ta, Te, Th, Ti, Tl, U, V, W, Y, Yb, Zn, and Zr and are part
of another world class data set from the BGS.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="s2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br /></span></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-44944203944077901842014-10-08T05:22:00.001-07:002014-10-08T05:22:55.355-07:00The European dimension<div class="MsoNormal">
BGS is involved in Europe in a number of ways, the most
lucrative being through EC funded projects, but also through multi-lateral and
bi-lateral collaboration that have developed over the years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Our current funding from Europe is about £1 million and is
down on recent highs which approached £2 million. As with many competitive
funding sources there are phases of funding and from time to time the phases
coincide thus creating a dip or artificial high. We are currently in a dip with
respect to EC funding that we had managed to build to about 5% of our total
income. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Prognoses for the future indicate that we may be able to
increase this income, but it is doubtful that the total will exceed ~10% of our
funding. This is about the amount for funding that the EC puts into research as
national governments fund the rest.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Should we put such an effort into this funding source as the
overheads to win the funding is high and the EC funders do not pay anywhere near
the full cost of the research? I have spent a lot of time recently trying to
shore up our longer term funding from Europe and ask myself this very question.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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I feel that the answer is “yes”, as this work establishes us
as international experts and we can then use this credibility to win more
lucrative contracts. Nonetheless, the work we do for Europe must be work we
would normally do internally. Thus developing new data infrastructure that can also
be used in BGS projects in general, getting the EC to fund the construction of
laboratories that serve additional<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Ludden,%20John%20N." datetime="2014-10-08T09:52"> </ins></span>purposes
or funding data products that we can integrate into national or international
data bases that add value to BGS as a whole are the sorts of endeavours we need
to undertake. In general these fall in the infrastructure development domain.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think we are positioning ourselves as leaders in European
data delivery for the geosciences and this should be our major goal with
Europe. Our partners are not necessarily the other national surveys and as some
of you know I am somewhat cynical about an approach that includes all the
surveys as partners. Our preferred partners are institutes and entities that we
may not intuitively work with, but that need our resources in data processing and
also from whom we can learn to build new data products. Why not reposition and
reskill to achieve the “the Ultimate Earth model” that is something of the
scale of the “<a href="https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en_GB">human brain
project</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">”. </span></span></div>
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Understanding the shallow and deep Earth will bring
benefits in understanding how we use it for Energy and storage, but also how we
remain resilient to geological hazards, like earthquakes, landslides and
volcanoes. For the first time computing technology brings this understanding
within our grasp but it will involve a joint effort to collect and process data
across Europe and the globe.<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:Ludden,%20John%20N." datetime="2014-10-08T09:49"> <u><o:p></o:p></u></ins></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-33825482565955603162014-07-14T05:30:00.000-07:002014-07-14T05:30:06.096-07:00BGS - Looking back and looking forwards......<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">BGS ran its
biennial stakeholders event at the <a href="https://royalsociety.org/" target="_blank">Royal Society</a> last month. The event was
attended by about 100 stakeholders from across the spectrum of government,
academia and industry. The presentations given by <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/6885.html" target="_blank">myself</a>, <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/3109.html" target="_blank">Mike Stephenson</a> and
<a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/40087.html" target="_blank">Mike Patterson</a> can be viewed </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/about/strategy.html#presentations"><span style="background: white; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">I gave a
summary of activities since the last stakeholder event which was of course
selective, but underlined our workforce plan, budget and some key science
activities, including partnerships. We look strong across the board with a refreshed
workforce, near rebuilt estate and some leading science activities for all
stakeholders. We were particularly active in the </span></span><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;" target="_blank">DECC</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> commissioned
<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/shalegas/" target="_blank">unconventional hydrocarbons</a> work, in informing government for </span></span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/flooding/home.html" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;" target="_blank">flooding</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> and also
in surveying SW England. We deployed some pretty hefty infrastructure in the
Baltic ocean for the </span></span><a href="http://www.iodp.org/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;" target="_blank">International Ocean Discovery Program</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> (IODP) and offshore Japan with our BGS rock drilling capability.
We are participating in the </span></span><a href="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/The_Living_Planet_Programme/Earth_Explorers/Swarm/ESA_s_magnetic_field_mission_Swarm" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;" target="_blank">SWARM</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;"> mission and continuing to instrument <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/volcanoes/katla.html" target="_blank">Iceland</a> as a volcano </span><span style="font-size: 14px;">super-site</span><span style="font-size: 10.5pt;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMQ5s8g8WZu0fEAUmcGT0vTIlI5OrrN9GYO6-gTAzMjqqB4ZjMQlwv4589BE6nmbqwDfmZFRncy059WXl5ef0Es3l5yNjon5CQnszjuZq6pG9NOEwubQ-HMHhSn-F2FjLI9KgE9Gj6pc/s1600/RoyalSociety2June.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzMQ5s8g8WZu0fEAUmcGT0vTIlI5OrrN9GYO6-gTAzMjqqB4ZjMQlwv4589BE6nmbqwDfmZFRncy059WXl5ef0Es3l5yNjon5CQnszjuZq6pG9NOEwubQ-HMHhSn-F2FjLI9KgE9Gj6pc/s1600/RoyalSociety2June.jpeg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">Mike
Stephenson (pictured right) presented a video of the highlights of our strategy
displayed in <a href="http://www.virtalis.com/geovisionary/geoscience.php" target="_blank">Geovisionary</a> and clearly underlining our move towards more
instrumentation of the subsurface of Earth to underpin resource development and
forecast GeoHazards on "scales that matter to people". </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Mike
Patterson summarised where we are with ownership and governance options and
made it clear that our preference is for a GovCo public corporation but the
status quo would still be on the table as might other governance and ownership
options. The ownership outline was well received with the audience asking the
same sorts of questions that we are about handling assets and ensuring we can
deliver a national geological survey role. Our preferred option was not
contested.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">With
respect to the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/strategy.html" target="_blank">BGS science strategy</a>, there was support, but also questions about
how we will represent our uncertainty in models or more open databases in
general. We explained that we were also working on this problem as part of our
rapidly developing <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/ukgeology/nationalGeologicalModel/home.html" target="_blank">National Geological Model</a> which will be increasingly open,
fed in part through open-sourced information and delivered by smart web
services. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;">All in all
2013 -14 was a good year for BGS and I thank our staff for their excellent
contributions.<o:p></o:p></span>British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-33280899002483618922014-04-28T05:26:00.001-07:002014-04-28T05:26:37.859-07:00BGS - A centre of excellence for geosciences<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
BGS and many other geological surveys are in the process of "upping their
game" as scientific research institutes. BGS intends to be the
"preeminent research active geological survey" and announced this as
part of a study in developing its business planning going forwards. We
anticipate that public based funding in the UK and elsewhere, is probably
becoming tighter and we will need to diversify our science funding base. The key
will be to maintain excellence in a competitive research market and minimise
drift towards science consultancy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paramount
in doing this is to have excellent scientists and to be a good place to work.
Three news stories from the BGS underline this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/0130.html" target="_blank">Dr Andy Chadwick</a> a world renowned expert in <a href="https://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/ccs/home.html" target="_blank">Carbon Capture and Storage</a> (CCS) was
recognised by the NERC individual merit promotion panel. These posts are highly
competitive and Andy will develop a far reaching programme in modelling CCS and
storage volumes in the UK and globally which will help underpin a zero carbon
emissions future for fossil fuels.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/people/matthew.hall" target="_blank">Dr Mathew Hall</a> who works at the <a href="http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/" target="_blank">University of Nottingham</a> and BGS and directs our
joint centre for CCS, the <a href="http://ncccs.ac.uk/ncccs/home.aspx" target="_blank">Nottingham Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage</a>, was awarded a <span style="background-color: white;">Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship</span>.
This award will allow him, to devote himself to researching several of our priority areas, such as CCS, shale gas, gas hydrates and energy storage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS
was one of the six UK publicly funded research institutes that received an
award from the <a href="http://www.athenaswan.org.uk/" target="_blank">Athena SWAN</a> programme which acknowledges our efforts for
promoting good employment practices for women in science. Well done to all involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With
these sorts of achievements BGS will continue to understand and predict
geological processes that science that matters to people's lives and
livelihoods.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-40077601193619021932014-03-04T04:57:00.000-08:002014-03-04T05:37:56.707-08:00Flooding 2014<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It has been the wettest winter on record and
one when the expertise of British Geological Survey staff was in high demand as
flooding extended across much of southern England. At the same time we feel
very sorry for those who have been and continue to be materially affected by
the flooding and the impacts of the extremely wet ground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The British Isles are located on the edge of
the European tectonic plate system and this location has underpinned a number
of our geographic and geological attributes. The one in play over the past few
months is that we face the Atlantic Ocean and in particular, we are subject to
the position of major geographical fluxes such as the atmospheric Jet Stream
and also the <span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:Citrix%20Terminal%20Services" datetime="2014-03-02T14:56"> </del></span>Atlantic Gulf Stream. The long
term research that is ongoing and needed is to be able to better predict the
weather patterns and in a given year, to allow people and government, to
prepare for them. I note that at almost exactly the same period two years ago,
BGS staff were advising government on the risks of a severe drought as we had
not received enough rain over the two previous winters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some might feel that the British climate is
just too difficult to forecast. I think we are making strides and there are
indications that we know what triggers the trajectory of the Jet stream and
observations on the Gulf Stream show some significant changes in warm water
ocean flux that must link to our weather patterns (</span><a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/rapidwatch/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">NERC Rapid Watch</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">). How these fluxes are
being affected by climate change is also an important line of research, as we
know that the Earth is absorbing more heat, but we do not yet know how this
links to climate change. We do know, for example, that the fluctuations
associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) have favoured a cool La
Niña phase in the past few years and when this shifts the planet will most
likely accelerate into a warmer climate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the rain falls, it either evaporates, is
taken up by vegetation, runs off or soaks into the ground. It is this underground flow that is the
research realm of our </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/home.html?src=topNav"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BGS groundwater</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> scientists. A large amount
of the flooding in the Thames valley and across southern England is related to </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/flooding/home.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">groundwater flooding</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, where the ground is
completely saturated, the underground aquifers are full and the gradients in
topography result in groundwater emerging at the surface in places where it has
never, or very infrequently, appeared before. Some streams in the chalk of
southern England are flowing for the first time in living memory.
Interestingly, even in a normal flow regime ~ 65% of the water in the Thames in
London is sourced from groundwater and not surface water and it is groundwater
that keeps many of our rivers flowing during the summer months.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tlnQWFHm_-NCGz2oygNTlSQ_shGK9YWlGq2RpJzG9KXxFwBpOT8uhYzvtqZsjpyemvra0SFaWnza-PHZ8EGKLC97oZ-KgJff6uEYQxhhIMmllkagVom6ozEjEQhdM_nCCLFN5tdXHCE/s1600/Floods2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_tlnQWFHm_-NCGz2oygNTlSQ_shGK9YWlGq2RpJzG9KXxFwBpOT8uhYzvtqZsjpyemvra0SFaWnza-PHZ8EGKLC97oZ-KgJff6uEYQxhhIMmllkagVom6ozEjEQhdM_nCCLFN5tdXHCE/s1600/Floods2.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Oxford Floods 2014 BGS (c) NERC</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">What can we do to help the people who are
struggling and inform the government? We can provide estimates of how long
flooding will continue, based on the predicted rainfall patterns and or
knowledge of how our aquifers respond, and we can model where groundwater
flooding will be the most serious, although that is of little help to those
who's homes are already flooded. We can also help provide information on
protecting important infrastructure and future planning. Because groundwater
flooding has only relatively recently been recognised as a serious issue, there
is only limited information on historical events and so it is as just as
important that we invest in the research needed to improve our understanding of
groundwater flooding and develop resilience as it is to be able to predict the
weather.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">High rainfall amounts and ground saturation and
shallow groundwater flow also result in increased </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/engineeringGeology/shallowGeohazardsAndRisks/landslides/home.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">landslides</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/engineeringGeology/shallowGeohazardsAndRisks/sinkHoles/home.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">sinkhole</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> risk. These commonly form in areas where
clays or sand-rich sediments overly soluble rocks such as the Chalk or Gypsum.
BGS has maps of areas most likely to be susceptible to </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/products/geosure/landslides.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">landslides</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/products/geosure/soluble.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">underground
solution features</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (sinkholes) or </span><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/products/geosure/running_sand.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">mobility of rocks</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. These help inform
insurance and construction companies, but prediction of where an event might
happen is extremely difficult especially in urbanised areas. In mountain ranges
and rural areas it is possible to use ground measuring satellites coupled to
systems in the ground to </span><a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/landUseAndDevelopment_tf.html"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">measure movement</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> and indeed some of the
most threatening landslides and subsidence areas on the planet are monitored
constantly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">BGS staff have worked hard in providing
information to the public and government and also worked with the press in
helping explain to the public how exceptional this particular flooding crisis
is. We must however continue to better prepare for the next crisis
whether is from too much or too little rainfall input into our catchments.</span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-78582373564268891512014-01-30T04:37:00.002-08:002014-01-30T04:37:57.920-08:00Getting a Gong<div class="MsoNormal">
I was extremely pleased to see that <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/0953.html">Dr Sue Loughlin</a> BGS Head
of <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/volcanoes/home.html">Volcanology</a> was
honoured with an MBE in the New Years honours list Sue not only plays a pivotal
role within the BGS Volcanology team but also within the wider volcanology
community where she has long been recognised and respected as one of the
leading scientists in the UK. It's Sue's passion for working with other leaders
in the field, as well as early-career scientists, that has resulted in her
successful leadership of global collaborations including <a href="http://www.globalvolcanomodel.org/">Global Volcano Model</a> and
ground-breaking research such as <a href="http://futurevolc.hi.is/">FutureVolc</a>.
Sue has forged new ground in interdisciplinary science and global level
projects such as <a href="http://streva.ac.uk/">STREVA</a>, <a href="http://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/vanaheim-introduction">VANAHEIM</a>,
EVOSS and <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/vogripa/index.cfm">VOGRIPA</a> and been
key in applying our science in order to protect lives, livelihoods and
communities at risk. A huge congratulations to Sue from us all at BGS!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmltG6y2PUH1UWBo0SOzmOtOHf9tTJcb_wkC0MPAFPWDyku1jDUKdzLVtIKEkC4SXq3xbMO1aShJij0vad665qVECVDP2weDUQw9QSwuvcbjULBHw6Nb3aUhFQWqMHhrK564G2yuUNn2k/s1600/Loughlin_S.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmltG6y2PUH1UWBo0SOzmOtOHf9tTJcb_wkC0MPAFPWDyku1jDUKdzLVtIKEkC4SXq3xbMO1aShJij0vad665qVECVDP2weDUQw9QSwuvcbjULBHw6Nb3aUhFQWqMHhrK564G2yuUNn2k/s1600/Loughlin_S.jpg" height="320" width="272" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
BGS staff occasionally get an award from the Queen's New
year honours or Her birthday's honours. These tend to reward our public good
science role.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our mixed role as scientists is quite a juggling act. We
produce science results and scientific interpretations to provide the
government and public with reassurance or with what is needed to make a
decision. In the case of volcanology this advice is related mainly to the
Iceland volcanic system, both during the 2010 activity and also
possibility of future activity. We worked with the <a href="http://en.vedur.is/">Icelandic meteorological office</a> and also with
the UK <a href="http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/">Met Office</a>, the UK research
<a href="http://www.ncas.ac.uk/index.php/en/">National Centre for
Atmospheric Science</a> in monitoring the Iceland ash clouds and <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/volcanoes/icelandic_ash.html">Eyjafjallajökull</a></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span>Volcano. Since then we have enhanced our
monitoring systems in Iceland and we are part of a major EU funded supersite
initiative on Iceland.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other public good activities involve <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/products/minerals/resourceMaps.html">resource estimates</a>
for the UK, <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/home.html?src=topNav">groundwater
monitoring</a>, <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/futureThames/groundStability.html">geological
stability</a> of the UK, vulnerability to <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/climateChange/home.html?src=topNav">climate
change</a> and many more. All of the staff involved in this work
deserve a medal, unfortunately we only get one now and again, but I’d like to
take the opportunity to thank the BGS staff for their efforts.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our staff also get satisfaction from recognition after
writing their data in international science publications and the general
feeling that they are doing something very useful for UK society and economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
My new year's resolution is to write a blog every month at a
minimum, so if you have any burning issues you’d like me to talk about please <a href="mailto:jludden@bgs.ac.uk">get in touch</a>.</div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-91024802267619428432013-12-06T04:31:00.000-08:002013-12-06T04:31:01.079-08:00BGS in Scotland<div class="MsoNormal">
There are significant changes ahead for BGS in Scotland. All
are positive and underpinned by investments in estates, new NERC sponsored
Doctoral training initiatives with Scottish universities and new programmes of
research in geohazards, environmental sustainability and resource security.</div>
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BGS has about 180 staff based in Scotland. Most are in
Murchison house, which is based on the University of Edinburgh’s King’s
Building campus. We also have a facility for handling heavy marine drilling
infrastructure at Loanhead, Edinburgh.</div>
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We intend to relocate all of our
Edinburgh activities<span style="color: #1f497d;"> </span>to
the <a href="http://www.hw.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Heriot Watt University</a> (HWU) campus over the next two <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">years</span>. This is an
opportunity in that we can regroup and develop synergies in key areas with HWU,
notably in the resources sector in partnership with the Institute for Petroleum
Engineering, but also with the Marine Sectors and the Institute for the Built
Environment. The focus on transformation of research to innovation at HWU
through spin-out and spin-in activities and
joint ventures with industry is attractive to BGS business development. </div>
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We will relocate all of our staff to the <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/news/DIARY/NR%20Sir%20Charles%20Lyell%20Centre%20for%20marine%20%20earth%20sciences%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">Sir Charles Lyell Centre</a> which will be a state of the art facility incorporating our staff and about 100
HWU staff plus<span style="color: red;"> </span>laboratories. We also intend to
relocate the marine infrastructure warehouse on the HWU site as part of the
research centre.</div>
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In all about 25% of BGS activities are based in Scotland and
we see the new development in HWU as underpinning this investment. Furthermore,
we will enhance collaboration with other Scottish Universities, both in
creating joint research programmes and through the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/releases/2013/83-dtp.asp" target="_blank">NERC Doctoral Training Centres</a> with Edinburgh University, the <a href="http://www.hw.ac.uk/news-events/news/nerc-project-14661.htm" target="_blank">Centre for Doctoral Training</a> in oil and gas
that will be managed by HWU and a consortium <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/iapetus/" target="_blank">IAPETUS</a> headed by <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/" target="_blank">DurhamUniversity</a>.
</div>
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We will build on our geohazards work with the University of
Edinburgh and other UK universities and European institutes. For example: we
will be doubling the density of our seismic
grid in creating UK-Array with Edinburgh, Bristol and Leicester Universities;
we will continue to intensify monitoring
volcanic activity in Iceland in partnership with UK HEI; we will enhance our
monitoring programme of the Earth’s magnetic field with the <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/home" target="_blank">University of Edinburgh</a> and the
<a href="http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/" target="_blank">British Antarctic Survey</a>.</div>
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BGS also works with Edinburgh
and Glasgow universities in managing NERC services and facilities in mass
spectrometry at the <a href="http://www.gla.ac.uk/research/az/suerc/" target="_blank">Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre</a>, the <a href="http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/facilities/ionprobe/" target="_blank">Ion Probe</a> and the
<a href="http://gef.nerc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Geophysical Equipment Pool</a> in Edinburgh. We are founding members of
<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/geothermal/britGeothermal.html" target="_blank">BritGeothermal</a> with Durham and Glasgow universities. We will continue collaboration with
Aberdeen, Dundee and St Andrews University in key disciplines and also work
with the James Hutton Institute and marine institutes in Scotland.</div>
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Despite the disruption in moving facilities and staff, which
I understand and which will be managed in an efficient and compassionate way by
BGS support staff, the future for BGS science in Scotland
is extremely positive and I predict an expansion of our research activities and
innovative joint ventures with Scottish universities and companies.</div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-72348547304830587922013-09-11T02:38:00.000-07:002013-09-11T05:08:41.346-07:00I think the Mole says it all.......<div class="MsoPlainText">
I presented a number of talks over the past few weeks and
many of them involved drawing on BGS work. This allowed me to read over a
number of our research outputs and in particular bring myself up to speed with
the impressive work in <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/science/landUseAndDevelopment/urban_geoscience/londonAndThames/home.html" target="_blank">London and the Thames basin</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
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At the <a href="http://goldschmidt.info/2013/" target="_blank">Goldschmidt conference</a> I gave a talk on the
Geochemistry of London in a session I organised on Impact of the science. My
talk was on a broad subject and in the end it had three parts: atmospheric,
calling on the work from the <a href="http://www.clearflo.ac.uk/" target="_blank">ClearfLo project</a>; soils (<a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/gbase/londonearth.html" target="_blank">London Earth</a>),
geology and geochemistry; river water, <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/waterResources/thames/home.html" target="_blank">groundwater</a> and modelling. </div>
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My conviction now is that
we have enough data and observing systems in place in London to create
an Urban Critical Zone (from tree top/building to bedrock) observatory).</div>
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I also talked at the <a href="http://www.cartography.org.uk/" target="_blank">British Cartography Society's</a> 50th
anniversary and joined the Chief Executives
of the <a href="http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/" target="_blank">Ordnance Survey</a>, <a href="http://www.ukho.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx" target="_blank">Hydrographic Office</a>, Defence Geographic Centre etc. I was struck by how different their approach in pure cartography is to ours, where BGS maps are really to be interpreted
as models of the subsurface or the geological environment. My talk, entitled
"<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/about/docs/LuddenBCS50th.pdf" target="_blank">The geological model for tomorrow's world</a>" provides some indication of the direction of travel of the
science programme that <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/staff/profiles/3109.html" target="_blank">Mike Stephenson</a> and I are developing; I think the mole says it
all... can we fit them with nose sensors?</div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-71914393789128712642013-08-16T07:44:00.002-07:002013-08-16T13:40:02.913-07:00A world leading Geological Survey<div class="MsoPlainText">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Financial Director David
Allen of BIS (Business Innovation and Skills government department) visited BGS last week, along with Graeme Reid who is responsible
for research in BIS; Graeme knows us well and thought we would be a good centre
for David to visit given our commercial focus. The aim was to show how a Research Council works and what our role is in translation of knowledge into useful information
for the private sector and the public.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David was extremely interested
by all that he discovered. The focus of the science discussion was on subjects
such as <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/shalegas/#ad-image-0" target="_blank">shale gas</a>, <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/energy/ccs/home.html" target="_blank">carbon capture and storage</a> (CCS) and <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/environmentAndHealth_rwt.html" target="_blank">nuclear waste disposal</a>, but also on what we do with
<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/change/home.html" target="_blank">groundwater and vulnerability to climate change</a> and how we work overseas. He
was keen to discover how we work with universities and also with other
government agencies. He recognised the important role of BGS as an independent
voice on geological matters and asked some probing questions on how we manage
to remain independent while also advising industry consortia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We visited the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/sciencefacilities/laboratories/engineering/mechanics.html" target="_blank">rock press</a> where David managed to witness a rock failure under pressure and saw what he referred to
as the dating lab at <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nigl/index.htm?src=topNav" target="_blank">NIGL</a> (I think we must have used this expression) ; he
understood the importance of both of these facilities in understanding rock
behaviour but also in standardisation to underpin geology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The visit to the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/NGR/home.html" target="_blank">National Geological Repository</a> was especially useful as it happened to be full of consultants
working on shale gas cores to prepare the next licensing round. They were all
"typical geologists" and carrying hammers and lenses (not that I approve
of hammering cores), so he did see and observe the
stereotype, that I assured him we are changing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is from a slide that I presented to David Allen during his visit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There may be a certain amount of chest banging, but BGS
outputs are excellent...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A world-leading Geological Survey</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• 516 scientists; working with more than 40 Universities
and institutes</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• More than 150 current private sector customers</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• Around 20 bespoke science laboratories</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• 5 NERC and national science facilities </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• The
NationalGeoscienceDataBase and Repository</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• 93% impact cases in NERC research
review recognised as excellent or outstanding </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">•
Internationally leading or better positions in 78% of research areas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• 75% 4 year increase in peer reviewed papers to 245 in
2012; </span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• >150 items of advice to policy makers in the UK, Europe, and
overseas in 2012</span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">• > 300 000 web visits a month</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In addition we have about 120 staff that support our
science in various ways, such as business development, IT, graphics, communications and administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dave Allen was fascinated. BGS represents a mere £26
million of a more than £16 billion budget, but he saw the economic benefit in
spades! </span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-17254427838370020882013-08-06T01:02:00.001-07:002013-08-06T01:02:16.156-07:00BGS commended for its ‘outstanding research impact’<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/" target="_blank">British Geological Survey</a> (BGS),
along with other centres in the <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/" target="_blank">Natural Environment Research Council </a>(NERC),
has been assessed to determine the excellence and impact of its research. The
review, carried out by the NERC, was similar to the Research Excellence
Framework system used to assess the quality of research in Higher Education
Institutions (HEI)<span style="color: #1f497d;">.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is extremely pleased that the
committee found that the impact of the research carried out by the BGS is
‘outstanding’. One area of particularly outstanding impact is the use of
information technology to transform the usability of its data to create <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/services/3Dgeology/home.html" target="_blank">3Dgeological models</a> and associated modelling technology and digital geoscience
information products such as the<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/igeology/" target="_blank"> iGeology</a> app. Other areas of outstanding
impact included the BGS<a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/NGR/home.html?src=topNav" target="_blank"> National Geological Repository</a>, its <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/international/home.html?src=topNav" target="_blank">internationalactivities</a> and the <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/nigl/" target="_blank">NERC isotope geoscience laboratory’s</a> (NIGL) work on depleted
Uranium.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The review panel considered that
that 78% of the BGS’s research was the equivalent of
the REF ‘internationally recognised’ standard, with a significant
proportion being at the REF ‘internationally excellent’ level.
NIGL, along with the <a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/climateChange/home.html?src=topNav" target="_blank">Climate Change</a> and Quaternary Science and<a href="http://bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/home.html?src=topNav" target="_blank"> Hydrogeology</a> are
to be commended for their performance in the research review.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">BGS is<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> one of the top geological surveys
of the world and as such has a dual research and service role, I am extremely
proud of what we have achieved to date, but we must continue to define the
trend that is now observable across many global geological surveys towards
greater research excellence through collaboration with HEI, research institutes
and Academies.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Further information and details of
the review can be found here: <a href="http://www.nerc.ac.uk/">www.nerc.ac.uk</a></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4574385759001677439.post-21313941966444020132013-07-31T06:08:00.000-07:002013-07-31T07:19:21.368-07:00Glacier Monitoring at the Royal Society Summer Science Festival<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Earlier this month BGS staff were involved in the <a href="http://sse.royalsociety.org/2013/" target="_blank">Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition</a>. This year we featured our observation system and associated research on
the <span style="color: #4d4e53;">Virkisjökull </span>glacier. With partners in
Iceland and the UK <a href="http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/glaciermonitoring/#ad-image-0" target="_blank">BGS have been monitoring this glacier for several years</a>. We <span style="color: #4d4e53;">are studying the glacier to better understand the rate of
change occurring in glacier environments, which can largely be attributed to
changes in our current climate conditions. The glacier observatory is
monitoring how quickly the glacier is melting on a measurable scale to help
predict the likely changes in glacier environments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #4d4e53;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">High resolution surveys are completed annually and the
observatory uses a combination of unique measurements to accurately measure the
changes in the glacier. Seismometers are used to capture ‘icequakes’, GPS units
to measure ice flow and melting, stream sensors to measure outflow of meltwater
at the surface, and boreholes to measure glacially-sourced groundwater flow.</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPoPSKMp3y0vxlCxx0edxu6aAutqG2MeMnViGj4ugB3gZgM2ye1Q-O76srWSkuCjnn8qCaaTGQHRXXG77vIw-U45pirmgAT5shv48Zp93NB2lUGLh01KTuJCbuX2aIl68_k8V7JpAibQk/s1600/tumblr_mpkb1iXGuD1s6s02eo1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPoPSKMp3y0vxlCxx0edxu6aAutqG2MeMnViGj4ugB3gZgM2ye1Q-O76srWSkuCjnn8qCaaTGQHRXXG77vIw-U45pirmgAT5shv48Zp93NB2lUGLh01KTuJCbuX2aIl68_k8V7JpAibQk/s1600/tumblr_mpkb1iXGuD1s6s02eo1_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Ice in the Greenhouse stand at the RSSSE</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #4d4e53; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our staff Jez Everest, Brighid O Dochataigh, Tom Bradwell, Leanne Hughes, Alan McDonald, Lee Jones, Lauren Noakes, Paul Wilson, Paul Witney, John Stevenson, Gemma Nash and Sarah Nice did an outstanding job in explaining our research to the numerous
visitors to the Royal Society exhibition. I would also like to thank Verity Flett our joint PhD student from Dundee University, Andrew Black a senior researcher at Dundee University and Sam Illingworth a NERC PhD student from Manchester University for giving up their time to come and help during the week.</span><br />
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #4d4e53;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="color: #4d4e53; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Photos from the week can be found <a href="http://arctic-meltdown.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span></div>
British Geological Surveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13740304547062993679noreply@blogger.com3