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.
Our mission
Our main mission as the National Oceanography Centre is to make sense of changing seas, upon which future human prosperity and wellbeing depends. The way in which we intend to achieve our mission is by
Going forwards, we will better exploit the synergies across these different supporting pillars of our mission to drive novel and innovative approaches to our work, enabling us to do things that are distinctive and that few others could do.
- Undertaking and enabling world-class science and technology development;
- Providing large research facilities and access to data and samples for the benefit of UK science
- Creating value and public benefit by supporting, with scientific evidence, the development of public policy, hazard assessment, ocean governance and regulation, and sustainable development
Our strategic goals
Our Strategic Goals are a balanced series of aims that will help us work together as ‘one NOC’ in driving forwards the whole organisation towards our common vision. Under each of these goals are high-level Strategic Objectives that emphasise integration and innovation.The first four goals relate directly to different aspects of our primary purpose of advancing science;
- Goal 1: Undertake internationally excellent research and technology development to advance the frontiers of knowledge about the ocean
- Goal 2: Create public benefit from all of the NOC’s capabilities
- Goal 3: Successfully translate world-leading and innovative research and technology developments to achieve wider impact
- Goal 4: Provide world-class underpinning capabilities that enable the UK and global ocean scientific endeavour
The remaining three goals enable those above:
- Goal 5: Responsibly grow and diversify revenue to sustain our mission with a critical mass of scientific and technical capability
- Goal 6: Transform the way the NOC is governed and operated
- Goal 7: Invest and reinvest in the NOC and its people
Defining our future
Our five year strategy is ambitious. It aims to preserve the very best of what we do, and grow our work – exploring new depths; creating the most innovative technologies; being the most exciting place to learn and work.