Guidance on the use of marine facilities
Scientists who have secured science funding from NERC, or from a non-NERC peer reviewed source (eg, the EU & NSF) or from commissioned research, can bid to NERC for 'free at the point of use' access to its research ships and marine equipment.
Under these arrangements the only cost that is payable by the scientist is the cost of all technician and equipment support (ie the superstructure cost). The infrastructure & capital cost of supporting the ships and the marine equipment is paid from central NERC infrastructure & capital funds.
'Free at the point of use' access to NERC's marine facilities will only be provided to science that is of international quality (ie science that has been graded alpha 3 or higher).
If science funding has not been secured from a peer reviewed source then a two-page science case should be submitted to NERC so that arrangements can be made for it to be reviewed by the most appropriate member(s) of NERC's Peer Review College to ensure that the proposed science is of international quality.
All scientists bidding for 'free at the point of use' access to any of NERC's marine facilities are required to submit an online Ship-time & Marine Equipment (SME) application form to NERC by creating a cruise profile on the Marine Facilities Planning website.
Researchers bidding for ship time or marine equipment need to speak to Marine Planning to discuss their requirements prior to submission of their online Ship-time & Marine Equipment (SME) application form. The primary purpose of this is to provide advice and resolve issues such as ensuring a realistic start date (which will affect cost indexation), inclusion of all relevant costs, confirmation that NERC can supply the required capability, etc, prior to submission of the SME rather than after it. Without such a discussion, it is possible that NERC will not be able to include a cruise in the NERC Marine Facilities Programme. For this purpose, the Marine Planning contact is Dr Helen Beadman.
The NERC marine facilities programmes will be developed within the limits of affordability. For the RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook (both operated by the National Marine Facilities Sea Systems Division (NMF Sea Systems)) NERC provides sufficient infrastructure support for around 600 NERC science days at sea a year.
For the RRS James Clark Ross (operated by British Antarctic Survey (BAS)) there is infrastructure support for 60 NERC science days a year.
The RV Prince Madog, co-operated by VT Ocean Sciences, is run on a 'pay as you go' basis as a recognised NERC facility.
For NMF Sea Systems the infrastructure allocation from NERC will allow it to support the NERC marine facilities programme, although there are a number of 'high load' activities, such as seismic and giant piston coring cruises, which NMF Sea Systems will only be able to support a limited number of in any one year.
The capital allocation to NMF Sea Systems of about £800k per year will allow for the continued maintenance, and enhancement, of NERC's marine facilities within the NMEP.
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