Special Interest Groups
Deep-Sea Ecosystems
The Deep-Sea Ecosystems SIG aims to bring together UK researchers working on deep-sea ecosystems to facilitate coordination of research efforts.
Ocean Wind Waves
A Special Interest Group for Marine Science focused on observing, modelling and forecasting ocean surface waves.
Coastal and Shelf Seas
This group provides a focal point for the UK community to discuss and plan future multidisciplinary research into coastal ocean and shelf sea process.
Sea Level SIG
The Sea Level SIG provides access to sea level data, pre-prints of recent research papers, discussions and more
Sea Ice SIG
Encompassing the UK sea-ice research community covering aspects of in situ and remote observation, modelling and climatology.
Advances in Marine Biogeochemistry
All aspects of marine biogeochemistry
Ocean Modelling Group
The modelling of the oceans at a range of scales
Marine Science and Policy SIG
Marine Science and Policy
Marine Science Data Management
The Marine Science Data Management group will provide a forum to discuss data management challenges faced by a range of marine science institutions and aims to promote data management best practices from collection through to archival, delivery and reuse.
Latest News
Potential Availability of NERC Ship Time During the 25/26 Programme Year
The NERC Marine Facilities Programme for 2025/2026 for the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook has been published on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
The RRS Discovery programme currently contains a 79 day alongside slot between the 2nd of November 2025 and the 19th of January 2026, which is available for science delivery if funded science projects can make use of this time. Due to the location of the vessel, the ship is most likely to be able to deliver fieldwork in the North and East Atlantic regions. Some support for science capability within the National Marine Equipment Pool is potentially available, although there is no capacity for use of autonomous vehicles or remotely operated vehicles. Any fieldwork within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) will need the appropriate diplomatic clearance submitted to coastal states at least 6 months in advance, and to NMF with sufficient lead time for processing via the FCDO.
If interested in making use of this ship time, please contact NERC Marine Planning (marineplanning@nerc.ukri.org) ASAP to start discussions.
THE MARINE FACILITIES ADVISORY BOARD – CAN YOU HELP?
The Marine Facilities Advisory Board advises the National Oceanography Centre on marine facilities and services, including the Natural Environment Research Council’s National Marine Equipment Pool (NMEP), the British Oceanographic Data Centre and the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility.
NOC Association AGM 2025
NOC Association (NOCA) AGM 2025
The 14th AGM of the NOC Association will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th May 2025. This free, on-line event will take place on Zoom, across two consecutive mornings, each starting at 10:00 and ending at 12:30. Although discussion topics are being finalised, we will focus on national capability (NC) science, ships, and autonomous vehicles, and how the community can engage. There will be an update on AtlantiS and on the new marine science scoping group. All are warmly welcome to join. To participate, please complete your registration here. For enquiries: Jackie Pearson, Secretary to NOCA: jfpea@noc.ac.uk