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About database content

Information sources and currency of data and ‘coding’ on ERFF classification scheme:

Envirobase currently contains information about environmental research projects and programmes and about environmental observation activities, programmes and data sources provided to us by the organisations listed in the table below. UK-EOF provides information about observational activities, programmes and data sources funded, carried out or hosted by all public or voluntary bodies; the information provided by all other suppliers is largely about research projects and programmes, although it sometimes includes some information related to observational activities or programmes.

BBSRC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010 dataset provided, awaiting preparation and loading;
Defra 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010 dataset provided, loaded excluding organisation & person information, coded;
DFID 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; XML data feed provided to give us updated information;
DfT 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010 dataset obtained, awaiting preparation and loading;
Environment Agency 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010 dataset provided, prepared for loading:
EPSRC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2011 dataset provided
ESRC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
Forestry Commission 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2011 dataset in course of preparation by FC;
Food Standards Agency 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
HSE 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
JNCC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
LWEC 2011 (April) dataset provided, loaded, coded;
Met Office 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
MRC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
Natural England 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010 dataset sought
NERC 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded; 2010/11 dataset provided, loaded, coded; (still excludes NERC Research Centres – see para below)
NIEA 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
Scottish Government incl Marine Scotland 2009/10 datasets provided, loaded, coded;
SEPA 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
SNIFFER (Scotland & Northern Ireland Forum for Environmental Research) 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;
UK-EOF Dataset up to date as in UK-EOF catalogue; coded except for items added in April 2011 or later;
Welsh Government 2008 dataset provided, loaded, coded;

Dates of the work:

The initial (mainly 2008) data load to Envirobase consisted largely of work funded during the period April 2005 to March 2008 or later; some data providers included information about earlier work than this but one or two organisations were not able to provide a complete dataset for the period 2005-2008. Environment Agency and SEPA also gave us information about work planned for 2009/10 which is currently still categorised as 'planned work' although we are now in 2011/12. We are currently working on updating information from all previous suppliers and on incorporating information from LWEC Partners who have not previously supplied data to the database. We have completed updates to information from Defra (except for associated organisations and people) and from NERC as well as integrating the UK-EOF observational information (by merging two databases) and adding the LWEC accredited programmes. Updated information from EA has been prepared for loading and will be loaded once Envirobase has been launched.

NERC Research Centres:

The database does not yet include details of all the publicly-funded research carried out by the NERC Research Centres (British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and National Oceanography Centre). Research funded through the NERC awards mechanism is included. The database also includes information on some projects funded by other LWEC partners where a NERC Research Centre is a contractor or a collaborator. The Centres are currently working to provide us with information on their recent projects and programmes and we hope to incorporate this soon.

Financial information:

Most suppliers of research information to Envirobase have been able to provide financial information of some sort, although the type of information varies from one organisation to another, but some of this has been marked as confidential by the data supplier. Where this is the case the LWEC Directorate will be able to use this information for analysis but Envirobase is not able to publish figures for the individual projects. Examples are individual studentships or some individual research projects with private sector contractors. UK-EOF do not at present hold financial information in a form which is amenable to display or analysis in Envirobase, and LWEC provides information on its accredited activities at the level of the whole programme, which is funded by two or more organisations. Where we have not been given a figure for ‘total funding’ for a research programme or project we have calculated an estimated figure where possible, from the information that has been provided. The ‘total funding’ figure shown in summary search results is the provided figure where we have one, or the estimated figure where we do not.

SNIFFER financial information:

Financial information provided to us by SNIFFER is in bands rather than individual figures. We have allocated a "representative" individual figure for each project to enable us to include these projects in any later analysis work. The individual figures shown in our database and the equivalent SNIFFER bands are as follows:

  • £20K = <£20K
  • £35K = £20K - £50K
  • £75K = £50K - £100K
  • £300K = £100K - £500K
  • £500K = >£500K

PhD studentships:

We have included titles and descriptive information on individual PhD research projects where it has been provided, and have flagged these as such in the search results. EPSRC provides funding for doctoral research by means of block grants to universities and is therefore unable to provide details of individual projects. The latest set of data provided by NERC also contains no titles or descriptive information about the majority of the doctoral research work which it funds and we therefore exclude this from display except in the minority of cases where a PhD studentship is linked to a programme of work for which we do have a title and/or description. In future we expect also to have less information about doctoral research funded by other Research Councils.

Masters' courses:

The database does include information about Masters' courses to enable us to carry out analysis on training, but as these do not themselves constitute environmental research we do not currently include these in the information displayed in response to searches.