UK National Oceanography Centre

The National Oceanography Centre is an independent self-governing organisation – a charitable company limited by guarantee. The NOC is funded by UK Research and Innovation to work on National Capability programmes, and manages on its behalf, the National Marine Equipment Pool – Europe’s largest fleet of autonomous and robotic vehicles, and two state of the art research ships RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook.

650 staff are employed across Southampton, Liverpool, RRS Discovery and RRS James Cook. We are co-located at both shore sites with leading UK Universities, giving us a unique position in UK marine research.​ A truly multi-disciplinary centre, our research encompasses Marine Physics and Ocean Climate, Marine Systems Modelling, Ocean BioGeosciences, and Ocean Technology and Engineering. We are home to the nation’s marine data assets: the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC), the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF) and the Discovery Collections.

We work collaboratively with over 40 other UK marine institutions through the NOC Association for Marine Science National Capability Beneficiaries, and engage with users of the UK marine infrastructure through the Marine Facilities Advisory Board, and with the beneficiaries of our long term underpinning National capability Science programmes, through the CLASS Advisory Board.

Through our trading subsidiary, NOC Innovations Ltd, we provide a vital link between science and business, enabling technology and research to transfer to industry and for revenue to be generated to support our charitable purposes.

We facilitate international co-operation in science by representing the UK internationally, leading the UK delegation of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, through our membership of the European Marine Board, and through partnerships with other research institutions and organisations worldwide.