British Antarctic Survey - National and Public Good activity

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British Antarctic Survey (BAS) staff provide knowledge and advice to further the UK's interests, the principal customers being the UK Government, its agencies, and industry. BAS produces knowledge on change in the polar-regions and its global impact that can serve the national public good. A prime example is the influence of the Antarctic ice sheet on global sea level rise, which has consequences for the protection of communities and infrastructure close to the UK coast. BAS provides NERC and the UK Government with advice on polar issues, both Arctic and Antarctic. BAS scientific expertise provides polar policy advice on many issues, for example sea-ice and its impacts on climate, business, and ecosystems. The UK Government maintains a prominent role in Antarctic governance and an increasing focus on Arctic geopolitics and science.In addition, BAS's core team of scientific leaders is utilised by several government departments. These include the Cabinet Office with regard to its natural hazards risk register (COBRA), information for BEIS on climate change and its impacts, and specific advice for DEFRA on ozone and Southern Ocean fisheries. We work closely with government agencies such as UK Met Office and we have increasingly strong links to UK industry in areas such as forecasting of space weather (e.g. satellites) and sea ice (e.g. shipping). Beyond this portfolio of established commitments, BAS is responsive to government requests as they arise. Each year BAS provides a rapid response to many requests from government departments and agencies. For example, BAS routinely provides information on the day of request to support answers to Parliamentary questions and provide written and oral evidence to Select Committees (e.g. Ocean Acidification) and All-Party Groups (e.g. All-Party Parliamentary Group on Polar Regions). Increasingly, BAS's expertise is also relevant to issues outside the polar regions. For example, providing advice to British Overseas Territories (e.g. St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cuhna), and areas where our polar expertise can be used (e.g. on water resources in the Himalayas). In this proposal we seek to fund our commitments over 5 years and provide a continued on-request service. This proposal covers the activity of BAS staff that is not covered by ALI/Partition, in particular the provision of expertise for NPG users and customers. This proposal will continue activities which have been recently reviewed (see BAS NC-NPG evaluation document for the wider context of each activity and assessment of track record).