About the NERC Digital Solutions Programme
27 Oct 2025
The NERC Digital Solutions Programme is bringing together over 40 petabytes of environmental data from the Natural Environment Research Council into the Digital Solutions Hub which will deliver economic, societal and environmental benefits across the UK.
The NERC Digital Solutions Hub is a free online mapping toolkit, launching in 2026, which will provide easy access to environmental, social, economic and health data to inform policymakers’ decisions. Headed by Professor of Urban Planning and GISC, Richard Kingston, the Digital Solutions Programme team are making decades-worth of environmental data easily usable and accessible.
Watch: Prof Kingston discusses the data which will feature in the NERC Digital Solutions Hub
The Hub will act as a gateway to a broad set of inter-connected toolkits that facilitate improved access and better use of the Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) many petabytes of environmental data. The digital platform will have especially broad impacts on the environment, society and the economy by facilitating easier access and use of NERC data in business, government and society.
The Digital Solutions team is working with a range of partners in local and national government, the private sector, technology sector, infrastructure providers, health sector, transportation, urban and regional planning, environmental science and a whole range of local and national agencies to facilitate improved decision making in a wide range of sectors.
Watch: About the Digital Solutions Hub
The Hub team recently carried out their first hands-on workshop, where delegates at the NERC Digital Gathering 2025 at Cranfield University were given exclusive access to the Climate Ready Nation (CRN) use case – the first of two main use cases within the Hub which will enable users to explore the Hub’s potential applications. The CRN use case empowers users to search for, visualise and analyse NERC’s environmental data along with other social, economic and health data to inform planning and policy decisions.
This inaugural real-world user testing session marks just a taste of what is to come, as the Hub team prepares to share their innovations with communities and organisations across the country. They are working with Open Data Manchester in running a series of user testing events over the winter – join their mailing list for further updates on how to sign up for these sessions. The Hub is set to officially launch next year as an open-access online toolkit available to all.
You can keep up-to-date on the Hub's development by following them on LinkedIn or by visiting their website and signing up to their newsletter.