Search for information on research or observation work or both. For information about search options
and search logic, use the Help (?) button at
top right. For information about the contents of the database see About database content .
You can use any of the column headings except the Dates/Status column to sort the summary results (but
detailed results retain the same order as your original summary results).
UK-EOF observation activities and programmes have a UKEOF ID; research projects and programmes have
a RES ID. Take care
when summarising results that span both types of activity. You can use the UK-EOF Catalogue to find UK-EOF observation activities alone if you prefer.
Problems, queries, or comments on the database or search facilities? Email
enquiry@envirobase.info .
Note: if you need a larger text size, try holding down the 'Ctrl' key and using your scroll wheel to
magnify the page.
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Simple search
Options for searching:
Choose the appropriate categories to search using the 'Search in' checkboxes
(descriptions, classifications, organisations, people) (all are checked by default).
Choose (in the 'for' box) whether you want to display information about
research projects, research programmes, UK-EOF observation activities, UK-EOF programmes, UK-EOF data
sources and/or LWEC accredited work. You can choose any or all of these independently (default is all
of them). LWEC accredited work is included in Envirobase independently of other entries; associations
with other research or observation work are shown in the detailed results where we are aware of these.
Choose (in the 'starting' box) your date range either using the dropdown
menu or by selecting a specific date range for the starting dates of research you want to see (default
is "anytime").
Choose (in the 'including' box) whether you want to display all the records
which meet your chosen criteria or only the more recently updated ones (default is "all records").
Choose how many results you want displayed per page when the Summary results
are returned (default is 20 results per page).
Enter your search term(s) in the text box and click Search (or Enter on your keyboard).
You can sort the summary results using any of the column headings except the Dates/Status column (but
note that detailed project results will retain the same order as your original summary results).
What is included in the search:
If the Descriptions checkbox is ticked, your search will include Titles,
Short titles, Descriptions, Summaries, Objectives, UKEOF, RES or LWEC IDs and Data providers' IDs of
the work; Note: if you are looking for an Environment Agency project using its Proposal Number or Science
Code you need to tick the Classifications checkbox, as these codes have been applied as Classification
information in the database.
If the Classifications checkbox is ticked, your search will include the
names and values of all classification information related to the work, whether these are the funder's
own classifications or keywords, or classifications on the ERFF Environmental Classification Scheme.
If the Organisations checkbox is ticked, your search will return all work
related to organisations, or units within organisations, whose names or acronyms match your search text;
note that not all organisations have been given acronyms in the database, so your search may be more
successful if you use the full name of the organisation. However, acronyms have been included in the
database for all the organisations who have provided data (so you can search for, e.g., NERC, EA, Defra).
If you prefer, you can now use the Organisation search page to search directly for organisations (or
units within organisations) to identify the one(s) you are interested in, and then use the detailed
results from this search to see the work linked to any of these organisations or units.
If the People checkbox is ticked, your search will return all work linked to people whose names match
your search text. The fields in our database against which your search text is matched include first
names, family names and honorific titles, but not the initials field, which would lead to too many false
hits.
Search logic:
By default, searches will look for all projects containing ALL of the individual
words or phrases you enter in the search box separated by at least one space, i.e. if you enter the
words freshwater fish pollution the search will look for projects containing freshwater AND fish AND
pollution. You can also use the Boolean logic operators OR and NOT explicitly, and you can be explicit
about the use of AND if you wish. You can also use a negative sign (-) instead of the word NOT, or an
ampersand (&) instead of the word AND, but the minus sign or & must immediately precede the word which
it qualifies, with no spaces (whereas AND, OR and NOT must be followed by a space before the start of
the word which they qualify). E.g. badger OR fox NOT rabbit would return projects containing the word
badger or the word fox, but not projects which also contain the word rabbit, as would badger OR fox
–rabbit.
Enclose search phrases within double quotes, e.g. "freshwater fish", to
find only projects in which these words occur adjacent to one another in that order.
You can use a wildcard character (either * or %) to search for a string
of characters within a longer word (e.g. flood* will find flooded, flooding, floods as well as flood).
You can search for a known project using its UKEOF, LWEC or RES ID or its
Data provider's ID; make sure the Descriptions checkbox and the appropriate 'for' box(es) are ticked
for this search. If you are using an Environment Agency Proposal or Science Code ID to search for a
project you need to tick the Classifications checkbox rather than the Descriptions box.
Searches for People should be able to find "Firstname Familyname" combinations
but only, of course, if we have been given this information. If you search for Firstname Familyname,
e.g. Martin Jones, as separate words rather than as a phrase enclosed in double quotes you will find
projects in which Martin Jones is involved but you will also find projects involving both, for example,
Trevor Martin and William Jones. You can use the Person search page to search directly for information
about people and the work associated with them.
Searches are not sensitive to case, i.e. it does not matter whether you use upper case or lower case
letters for your search terms and your Boolean logic operators: the search will look for all instances
of the terms and will recognise Boolean operators whether they are expressed as AND/OR/NOT or as and/or/not
(or any combination of upper and lower case).
What you should find:
Summary results grid
Whichever checkboxes are ticked, the result of your search, if successful,
will return summary information about one or more projects, activities, data sources or programmes.
If you are searching on Descriptions and you have used a rather general term you may get a very large
number of items in the summary results. The items which have most occurrences of your search term(s)
in the relevant fields will be at the top of the list and those which have fewest occurrences will be
near the bottom. You may want to introduce an extra word or two to your search to reduce the number
of hits and find the most relevant ones. If you are searching specifically on Organisations the projects
which have your search term as Lead Funder will occur at the top of the list. If your search term is
an organisation name but you tick the Descriptions checkbox as well as the Organisations checkbox you
will also find projects which have that organisation mentioned in their descriptions, and these may
occur near the top of the list if there are several mentions of the organisation name included in the
description.
If you hover your cursor over the magnifying glass at the left hand end
of the summary results grid you will be able to see the first part of any descriptive information we
have about the work.
There should be a title of some sort for every item displayed. Sometimes
these are not very informative. We have provided what information we have been given; we hope that the
quality of information provided will improve in time, as the use and perceived value of the database
increases and as data providers improve their own systems for collecting and processing project information.
Most projects have Lead Funder and Lead (Research) Organisation information
linked to them. For some projects we are unable to tell who the Lead Funder, or the Lead (Research)
Organisation, is, and these cells may be blank in the summary results grid. You should find all the
information we have about organisations and/or people related to the work in the detailed results (see
below).
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. Where the "total funding" cell in the summary results grid is empty it is either
because that information is confidential or because we do not have sufficient information to estimate
a figure for total funding. Information about funding of research projects and programmes in individual
years, where we have been given it, is included in the detailed results for each project/programme.
The research project/programme start and end dates listed in the summary
results grid are "actual" dates where we have these and "planned" dates where we have no "actual" date.
Where the research is completed within a single year we have listed that year with no indication of
‘from’ or ‘to’. Where a start date is shown with no end date or and end date with no start date it is
because we do not have the missing information. The detailed information for the project/programme shows
more precisely what information we have about its start and end dates.
We have included doctoral research that has a specific title in the database
information made available through the website except where the research has been terminated after less
than two years. Names of individual students have generally been kept confidential but the relevant
supervisor's name is usually provided.
We have now excluded the Data provider's ID for the project in the information shown in the summary
grid in order to leave space for other items. However, we do still display this information in detailed
project/programme results, and some detailed project descriptions include reference to other work from
the same data provider using their own IDs, so we still include the Data providers' IDs in the fields
which you can search for using the text search box. For most data providers you need to have the Descriptions
checkbox ticked when searching using their Data providers' IDs. For Environment Agency projects, if
you are searching using the EA's Proposal or Science Code IDs you need to have the Classifications checkbox
ticked.
Detailed results
You can see the full detail that we hold on work either one item at a time,
or as a group selected from one page of the Summary Results grid.
To see the details for a single item, click on the link from the relevant
ID in the Summary grid. From the details for this item you can navigate directly to the details for
an adjacent item in the list, or to the first or last item in the (entire) list using the links at the
top or bottom of the details page.
To see the details for a group of item choose the ones you want to see using the checkboxes at the left
of the Summary grid. The checkbox at the top of this column can be used to select, or deselect, all
of the items on that page and you can then deselect, or select, individual items as you choose. Click
on the 'Show details for all ticked results' button to display the details. At present the maximum number
of items per page, and hence the maximum number of items for which you can view details at one time,
has been set to 100 to avoid overloading our server.
Version 4.0.0.0
Research/observation overlap
Number of records could be misleading because:
Information about each environmental observation activity and programme is collected and collated by
UK-EOF as a single entity and given a unique ID (to help users identify what are often multi-year, long
term activities). The information will be updated over time if the activity changes, but the ID will
not change. In contrast each research entry relates to a single project or programme funded for a defined
period. A new project with a new ID will be established in the database when a new research project
is commissioned, even where this is follow-on work.
Apparent duplications from funding sources:
Funding to sustain observation programmes may come from several organisations and sources (and these
may vary over time). Furthermore, some organisations fund observations through 'research' budget allocations;
in these cases individual funders may submit information (about their funding contribution to observational
activities) as part of their 'research' submission, and the Lead organisation will also provide information
about the activity to the UK-EOF. A single observational activity or programme may therefore be represented
in Envirobase by one 'UKEOF' entry and also by one or more 'RES' entries representing individual contributions
which have been made via 'research' budget allocations. In other cases research funding may be used
to support investigations which are related to, but separate from, ongoing observation activities. These
may have similar titles and information but are not duplication. Extreme care is therefore needed in
the interpretation of search results.
