Economic valuation of BGS’ National Geological Repository: final summary report

The British Geological Survey (BGS) is the UK’s national geological survey and one of the oldest institutions of its kind globally. Founded in 1835, BGS now operates as a mission-led research centre within UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), under the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Its work focuses on improving the UK’s understanding of its subsurface environment – and enabling the best use of this environment to support key policy initiatives, the energy transition, infrastructure delivery and economic development – through systematic geological surveying, long-term monitoring, data curation and applied research. At the heart of BGS’ work is the National Geological Repository (NGR) — the UK’s principal archive of physical geological samples and subsurface data. Located at BGS’ headquarters in Nottinghamshire, the NGR houses over 16 million geological samples and specimens, including over 600km of drill core (cylindrical sections of subsurface rock, 30-150mm in diameter and 1-3m in length) collected from UK boreholes and wells. These collections are a critical national asset, providing data and insight into the geology of the UK and its Continental Shelf, that can be analysed and examined to inform the nation’s energy transition, management of its natural resources, and resilience to environmental hazards. This study focuses on the NGR – rather than the work of BGS more broadly – and assesses the value that the NGR has delivered to date for the UK. In doing so it also sets out the key strategic arguments for why further investment in the NGR — particularly in digitisation and expanded storage capacity — is necessary to unleash the potential of its collections as nationally enabling infrastructure. This study was commissioned by BGS, in recognition of the challenges facing the NGR, and was delivered by Human Economics, supported by Ipsos.