The NOC is the UK’s national centre of excellence for large-scale, long-term sustained oceanographic research.
The NOC plays a key role in enabling the entire UK marine community contribute to global scale programmes addressing the most pressing environmental questions of our generation.
The NOC has a distinctive role in the UK’s marine science landscape. Specifically, because of its scale and organisation it is able to:
Create a critical mass of research capability, effort and expertise; to provide enhanced research productivity, visibility, exploitability; or rapidly to strengthen an underdeveloped area
Foster co-ordinated and co-operative multidisciplinary approaches to its main research area, ocean science;
Encourage a long-term research vision and strategy;
Enable long-term survey, monitoring and data management activities underpinned by research;
Provide a full-time research-centred environment;
Open up scientific career paths and opportunities which may not be available within university or faculty structures;
Develop and provide facilities and services; and
Allow greater investment in capital equipment and the skills of support staff, because of the more stable environment.
