National Partnership for Ocean Prediction

The partnership aims to:

• draw together world-class expertise from the UK's leading marine and oceanographic research centres;
• develop and promote the application of world-leading marine products and services to stakeholders, with a focus on national and public benefit.

These aims will be achieved by:

• integrating of models, observations and scientific understanding to produce the best information and advice about the marine environment, with rigorous quality assurance and traceability;
• engaging with stakeholders to understand their requirements and to maximise the beneficial use of marine products and services.

The partners

The National Partnership for Ocean Prediction takes advantage of the research and service expertise in the partner organisations and their knowledge and observations of the marine environment.

Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is an International Centre of Excellence in Marine Science & Technology and a Collaborative Centre of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). It carries out innovative and timely fundamental, strategic and applied research in the marine environment from the uppermost reaches of estuaries to the open ocean.

PML is an independent, impartial provider of scientific research in the marine environment, with a focus on understanding biodiversity and ecosystem function, biogeochemical cycling, pollution and health, towards forecasting the role of the oceans in the Earth System.

PML bring to the partnership expertise in:

• biogeochemistry modelling and data assimilation;
• satellite and airborne remote sensing;
• specialist observation;
• data analysis and model evaluation.

Centre for Enviroment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science

The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) are leaders in marine science and technology, providing innovative solutions for the aquatic environment, biodiversity and food security.

Cefas helps to shape and implement policy through internationally renowned science and collaborative relationships that span the UK government, the EU, non-governmental organisations, research centres and industry.

Cefas bring to the partnership expertise in:

• climate change impacts and adaptation;
• marine planning and environmental licensing;
• sustainable fisheries management;
• marine biodiversity and habitats;
• fish and shellfish health and hygiene;
• emergency response.

National Oceanography Centre

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is the Natural Environment Research Council's centre of excellence for oceanographic sciences. NOC has a remit to provide:

• leadership and national capability in the marine sciences, from the coast to the deep-ocean.
• world-class research and capability in ocean measurement, the translation of knowledge in to impacts and the stewardship of marine data.

NOC brings to the partnership research in ocean modelling and its application on this full range of scale.

Met Office

The Met Office brings to the partnership scientific expertise in:

• ocean, shelf-seas, surface wave and sea-ice models
• assimilation into models of observational data;
• technical expertise in the development and transition to operations of systems. 

In addition, world-class science from the Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services provides the scientific basis for climate change services which meet the requirements of our government and business customers.

The partners have extensive, and complementary expertise in collecting observations of the marine environment.