Scientific and engineering data sources offer a rich resource for new research and investigation by presenting raw data for analysis and comparison. The Library provides access to a number of data services, including science and engineering databases, books, journals and mapping tools. Data centres in the U.K. and wider world, with responsibility for maintaining and making scientific research data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (following the FAIR Data Principles), are also linked to in this guide alongside useful webpages and online tools.
Data Centres
- data.nclNewcastle University's open data repository for researchers to document, archive and publish datasets.
- The Urban ObservatoryNewcastle University's Urban Observatory collects real-time urban data from across the Tyne and Wear area. Over 50 data types are available including air quality, traffic, sewage and noise levels.
- NU Smart FarmsWebsite highlighting the research and data collection taking place at Newcastle University's farms.
- National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD)The National Innovation Centre for Data (NICD) was created in 2019 with £30 million of funding from the government and Newcastle University. Based in the state-of-the-art Helix science district in Newcastle, its mission is to transfer data skills to the UK workforce, through PhD and Masters level data scientists. Browse the Knowledge Hub and Events pages to learn more.
- Admiralty Marine Data PortalProvides access to marine data sets held by the UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) including information on ship routeing, maritime limits, bathymetry, and tidal data services.
- DASSH: The archive for marine species and habitats dataThe archive for marine species and habitats data
- Marine Environmental Data & Information Network (MEDIN)The MEDIN portal contains information about marine datasets from over 400 UK organisations.
- North East Coastal ObservatoryThe North East Coastal Observatory collates data gathered from the coastline at the Scottish Border to Flamborough Head including: beach profiles, topographic surveys, cliff top recession surveys, bathymetric and sea bed characterisation surveys, wave data, aerial photographs, and LiDAR data.
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) has a network of environmental data centres which hold data from environmental scientists working in the UK and around the world. The data centres are responsible for maintaining environmental data and making them available to all users, from science, commerce, government and education as well as the general public.
You can search for data held in any of the NERC data centres through the central NERC Data Catalogue Service or by going to direct to individual data centre websites:
- British Oceanographic Data CentreA national facility for preserving and distributing biological, chemical, physical and geophysical marine data.
- The CEDA ArchiveThe CEDA Archive provides atmospheric and earth observation data covering climate, composition, observations and NWP data as well as various earth observation datasets, including airborne and satellite data and imagery.
- Data Catalogue Service (DCS)The NERC Data Catalogue Service provides an integrated, searchable catalogue of the data holdings of NERC's data centres.
- Environmental Information Data CentreThe Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) manages nationally-important datasets concerned with the terrestrial and freshwater sciences.
- National Geoscience Data CentreThe National Geoscience Data Centre (NGDC) collects and preserves geoscientific data and information.
- UK Polar Data CentreThe UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) is the focal point for Arctic and Antarctic environmental data management in the UK. It includes long-term environmental, biological, geological and meteorological datasets, specimens, maps, and photographs as well as Arctic and Antarctic data produced from BAS science programmes.
- UK Solar System Data Centre (UKSSDC)The UK Solar System Data Centre (UKSSDC) provides a central archive and data centre facility for Solar System science in the UK, encompassing solar, inter-planetary, magnetospheric, ionospheric and geomagnetic science.
- Marine Institute Data Services:The National Marine Data Centre of Ireland consists of hosted online data services including descriptive metadata to find data, maps and graphs to view data; and services to download data. The Digital Ocean tool acts as the one-stop-shop to all data related to marine matters including all the activities, programmes and services provided by the data centre.
- SeaDataNetSeaDataNet brings together data from a unique group of major institutes and marine data centres from countries bordering the North-East Atlantic, and its adjacent seas: the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Baltic, the North Sea and the Arctic
European Environmental Agency
- Environmental data centre for land useThe environmental data centre for land use provides data to understand the relationship between land use and environmental impacts. Information is provided at different scales combining European coverage with global and in situ survey data.
- European air pollution data centreThe air pollution data centre provides access to data and information related to the amount of air pollutants emitted into the atmosphere from different anthropogenic (human-made) sources as well as measured ambient air pollution at monitoring stations across Europe.
- European biodiversity data centreThe biodiverstity data centre provides the coordinated entry point for data on species, habitat types and sites of European interest.
- European climate change data centreThe climate change data centre provides access to data and information on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation in Europe.
- European water data centreThe water data centre provides the European entry point for water related data as part of the Water Information System for Europe (WISE)
Joint Research Centre (JRC)
- European forest data centre (EFDAC).The European Forest Data Center (EFDAC) is a focal point for policy relevant forest data and information by hosting and pointing to relevant forest products and by providing web-based tools for accessing and updating information located in EFDAC.
- European soil data centre (ESDAC).The European Soil Data Centre acts as the primary data contact point for the European Commission's DG ENV in order to fulfill its soil information needs.
EUROSTAT
- Environmental Data Centre on Natural ResourcesEurostat's Environmental Data Centre on Natural Resources (EDCNR) is an online repository for a broad range of data on Natural Resources in Europe. The EDCNR provides information on Resource Efficiency Indicators, as well as basic statistics and indicators on Natural Resources.
- European data centre for wasteThe central entry point for reporting of data under Community legislation on waste and providing information on waste and the associated environmental impacts.
- AMISThe Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) is an inter-agency platform to enhance food market transparency and policy response for food security. It provides market information on wheat, rice, maize and soybeans.
- Data Distribution Centre of the IPCCDesigned for Climate Change researchers, the Data Distribution Centre (DDC) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides climate, socio-economic and environmental data, both from the past and also in scenarios projected into the future. Technical guidelines on the selection and use of different types of data and scenarios in research and assessment are also provided.
- FAOSTATFAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings
from 1961 to the most recent year available. - Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) World Data CentresThere are seven GAW World Data Centres (WDCs) each responsible for archiving one or more GAW measurement parameters or measurement types including: Ozone and UV, Solar Radiation, Greenhouse Gases, Aerosols, Precipitation chemistry, The World Data Center for Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere, and Reactive Gases
- Global Fishing WatchGlobal Fishing Watch provides data on global commercial fishing activity, comprising, Fishing effort, Fishing vessels, Transshipment, Anchorages, Anonymized AIS data & Fishing Detection Models. Research partners include FAO and NOAA-NESDIS Earth Observation Group.
- IAEA Nuclear Data ServicesIncludes the Computer Index of Nuclear Reaction Data (CINDA) which archives bibliographic references to measurements, calculations, reviews, and evaluations of neutron cross-sections and other microscopic neutron data. Also includes the EXFOR library, containing an extensive compilation of experimental nuclear reaction data.
- ICES: Marine DataData sets, tools and maps on Marine Science managed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).
- IODE Ocean Data PortalIODE provides oceanographic data held by the IODE global network of 80 National Oceanographic Data Centres (NODCs),
- Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)OBIS is a global open-access data and information clearing-house on marine biodiversity for science, conservation and sustainable development
- Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)SCAR is a portal to data repositories of Antarctic scientific data and information.
- SDG indicatorsFAO's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Data Portal provides access to the 21 SDG indicators under FAO custodianship.
World Data System
The World Data System (WDS) is an Interdisciplinary Body of the International Science Council, promoting long-term stewardship of, and universal and equitable access to, quality-assured scientific data and data services, products, and information across a range of disciplines in the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. WDS aims to facilitate scientific research by coordinating and supporting trusted scientific data services for the provision, use, and preservation of relevant datasets, while strengthening their links with the research community.
Membership of the WDS includes over 70 Data Centres, which can browsed and searched via the links below:
- WDS Data PortalThe ICSU-WDS Data Portal is a prototype allowing retrieval of datasets from participating WDS Members.
- WDS Membership ListList of data centres and services that support scientific research by holding and providing data or data products
American Data Centres
- NASA Global Change Master DirectoryProvides access to Earth science data and data-related services worldwide, while specifically promoting the discovery and use of NASA data as an integral part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS) project.
- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)NCEI is an archive for environmental data on Earth. Through the Center for Weather and Climate and the Center for Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics, NCEI provides over 25 petabytes of comprehensive atmospheric, coastal, oceanic, and geophysical data.
- National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)NSIDC manages and distributes scientific data about the cryosphere.
- National Space Science Data CenterThe permanent archive for NASA space science mission data.
- The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data SystemThe SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) is a Digital Library portal for researchers in Astronomy and Physics, operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO)
- USGS Data and ToolsUS government scientific agency that studies the landscape, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. It includes data on topics such as, Biology & Ecosystems, Energy, and Water
- re3dataA global registry of research data repositories covering research data from a range of academic disciplines.
- Google Dataset Search (Beta)Dataset Search helps you find datasets wherever they’re hosted online.
- ZenodoA multidisciplinary open-access repository that allows researchers to deposit data sets, research software, and reports.
See further suggestions on Finding Data and guidance from our Research Data Service.
Journals
- Big Data and SocietyAn open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes interdisciplinary work principally in the social sciences, humanities and computing and their intersections with the arts and natural sciences about the implications of Big Data for societies.
- Data Mining and Knowledge DiscoveryThe journal publishes original technical papers in both the research and practice of data mining and knowledge discovery, surveys and tutorials of important areas and techniques, and detailed descriptions of significant applications.
- IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data EngineeringThis journal informs researchers, developers, managers, strategic planners, users, and others interested in state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice activities in the knowledge and data engineering area.
- International Journal of Data Science and AnalyticsPublishes original, fundamental and applied research outcomes in data and analytics theories, technologies, and applications and promotes new scientific and technological approaches to strategic value creation in data-rich applications.
- Journal of Industrial Information IntegrationThe Journal of Industrial Information Integration focuses on the industry's transition towards industrial integration and informatization, encompassing not only hardware and software, but also information integration.
- Journal of Statistical SoftwarePublishes articles, book reviews, code snippets, and software reviews on the subject of statistical software and algorithms.
- Patternsan open access journal publishing ground-breaking original research across the full breadth of data science.
Digimap is an online mapping and data service that provides online access to the most up-to-date maps from Ordnance Survey. We have the full EDINA Digimap suite of products including OS, Historic, Geology, Marine, Environment, Aerial, Lidar, Global, Society, Pilot, Verisk and agCensus.
- Geology Digimap provides map data at a number of different scales from the British Geological Survey (BGS) along with the BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units and the Onshore Borehole Index. Data can be especially useful for civil engineering, ecology, coastal erosion studies and natural resource planning.
- Marine Digimap provides detailed spatial data and marine charts for the waters around Great Britain including both offshore and near-shore areas, vector data describing our coastal environments and gridded bathymetry, socioeconomic and conservation layers. Marine data can be useful in offshore engineering projects, management of marine and coastal environments, marine ecology studies, environmental impact assessments and tourism.
- Environment Digimap provides Land Cover Maps of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH). The Land Cover data can be used to plan, manage or monitor agriculture, ecology, conservation, forestry, environmental assessment, water supplies, urban spread, transport, telecommunications, recreation and mineral extraction.
You can access Digimap by clicking on the banner above or via Library Search. Find out more about Digimap on our Maps Guide.
