UK Research and Innovation

Partner Presentation

The British Antarctic Survey (UKRI) is a component of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). NERC is part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI). It has, for over 60 years, undertaken the majority of Britain's scientific research in and around the Antarctic and Arctic regions, building a reputation as a world-renowned polar science and logistical centre. UKRI undertakes a world-class programme of scientific research, survey and long term observations addressing key issues of global or fundamental importance that require access to the Polar Regions. The Antarctic operations and science programmes are executed and managed from Cambridge, and rely on a wide-ranging team of professional staff. UKRI employs over 400 staff, and operates three stations, five aircraft, and two ships (used for both logistical support and scientific research).

UKRI has had an active polar physical oceanography team for over 20 years. The group maintains strong observational and modelling teams and has extensive experience of with both ship-based and autonomous hydrography and turbulence measurements, gained through numerous field programmes in both the open Southern Ocean and the continental shelves of the Weddell and Amundsen Seas. Of direct relevance to SO-CHIC, UKRI is currently leading the ORCHESTRA programme, a 5-year multiinstitution project to quantify, understand and predict the Southern Ocean’s uptake of heat and carbon, with a particular focus on the South Atlantic, including the Weddell Sea. In recent years, UKRI has developed a strong underwater glider programme, tasked with investigating both the fluxes of heat across the Antarctic Peninsula shelves, and submesoscale processes in the open Southern Ocean. This has included software development work with Teledyne Webb Research to allow the glider fleet to be deployed successfully in marginal ice zones.

Role in project

UKRI will be the co-lead for work packages on upper ocean ventilation pathways (WP2: A. Brearley) and deep ocean ventilation pathways (WP3: A. Meijers). As well as science delivery, UKRI will therefore work extensively on the coordination of the centres contributing to WPs 2 and 3 as well as be extensively involved in the overall management and coordination of SO-CHIC.