How INSPIREd is NERC?

The Natural Environment Research Council (www.nerc.ac.uk) is the UK's main agency for funding and managing research, training and knowledge exchange in the environmental sciences. In 2007 NERC commissioned a consultancy to prepare an INSPIRE baseline and Road Map to enable it to be compliant with the EU INSPIRE Directive well ahead of the deadlines listed in the Directive. This study provided: • A baseline of INSPIRE readiness across NERC with respect to INSPIRE requirements for metadata, discovery, view and download services; • A description of what NERC will need to provide to fully comply with the INSPIRE Directive; • A description of the technology options that are currently envisaged to implement the INSPIRE Directive; • A Road Map to show what NERC must do to meet the INSPIRE Directive; • An estimate of resources required to implement the INSPIRE Directive. This paper outlines the findings of this study.