OBIC awarded NERC facility contract

(3 July 2007)

The Ocean-Bottom Instrumentation Consortium (OBIC) is pleased to announce that it has been contracted by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to provide the Ocean-Bottom Instrumentation Facility (OBIF) as part of its Services & Facilities portfolio. It will join SEIS-UK and Geophysical Equipment Pool, and become the third operational node of the NERC’s Geophysical Equipment Facility (GEF). Established in 2002 as a collaboration between three universities – Durham, Southampton and Imperial College – with long track records in marine geophysical research and seabed instrument development and use, OBIC aims to provide the academic community with access to multi-sensor, versatile seabed instruments to enable sub-surface geophysical imaging at high vertical and lateral resolution. OBIC offers infrastructure and technical support, unique within the UK, for geophysical research integral to the provision of the NERC’s scientific strategy. At the forefront of equipment capability and provision, OBIC is also undertaking innovative sensoring of platforms to provide contemporaneous recording of data types and hence minimisation of associated ship time. It also offers training to the next generation of geophysicists in instrumentation, experimental design (field acquisition), data analysis and modelling. OBIC’s suite of seabed geophysical instrument platforms are mobilised from bespoke laboratory spaces located at, and currently provided and funded by, the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Durham, and the School of Ocean and Earth Science at the University of Southampton. These instruments are supported by dedicated engineering staff whose roles also include instrument development, sea-going technical support and the training of equipment users. www: http://www.obs.ac.uk/ www: http://www.obs.ac.uk/OBIF/obif_announcement.htm www: http://gef.nerc.ac.uk/ email: info@obs.ac.uk