The INfluence of man-made Structures In The Ecosystem (INSITE) Programme has launched a collaboration between offshore industries and researchers, designed to give marine scientists access to industry-acquired ecological data.
INSITE is a scientific research programme to increase understanding of the influence of man-made structures on the ecosystem of the North Sea. Now in its fifth year, following the completion of a Foundation Phase of research, the Programme has moved into a second phase.
A key outcome from the Foundation Phase was that new data is needed to maximise the outcomes from the science programme. The second phase of INSITE has been developed in partnership with NERC and CEFAS, which in addition to a funded research programme, also includes a data collaboration between industry and science. A new GIS-based data sharing portal ‘INSITE Interactive’ has been developed to give scientists visibility of industry data made available for INSITE researchers. The new portal provides a GIS-based reference for sourcing industry held ecological data relating to offshore structures. With its specialist GIS capability, energy consultancy Xodus Group was selected to facilitate the delivery of the tool.
