Unlocking the Subsurface
The subsurface provides a wide range of essential services for society including infrastructure, storage (e.g. carbon, energy, water) and resources (e.g. minerals, water, energy). Subsurface systems are complex, interconnected and dynamic, resulting in a variety of feedback loops, which can be difficult to track or predict. We need to better understand the subsurface as a geosystem, including its connection to the surface environment and the current and future impacts of climate change, to provide the scientific evidence and solutions to enable the sustainable and responsible optimisation of subsurface usage to deliver both UK growth and security in the context of decarbonisation, resource and energy security.
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is scoping a potential research and innovation opportunity aimed at ‘Unlocking the subsurface.’ There is currently no funding associated with this activity however, if secured, the programme would aim to deliver the understanding, evidence and tools needed to:
- sustainably balance the increased demands on the subsurface without compromising its’ physical, structural and environmental integrity;
- responsibly optimise utilisation of the subsurface to its full potential for UK communities at local, regional and national scales to deliver UK growth, resilience and security
Invitation to share your views on key knowledge gaps
We are reaching out to our research and innovation community to gather insights into the critical knowledge gaps that a potential future research and innovation activity could aim to address. We invite you to contribute your perspectives by answering the following question:
What are the key knowledge gaps that, if addressed by research and innovation, will deliver a significant step change in optimising the use of the subsurface?
Please note we are looking for knowledge gaps that apply to the sustainable utilisation, optimisation and management of multiple subsurface technologies & sectors. This is a highly interdisciplinary area; we are particularly interested in knowledge gaps which environmental science research and innovation will have a key role in addressing. Gaps that are only relevant to a specific technology or sector (e.g. geothermal; CCUS; minerals extraction) are out of scope.
You may include up to two knowledge gaps in your submission.
Please enter a short description of each knowledge gap in the 'title' box and your full answer to the question in the 'description' box and click submit.
The deadline to submit responses is 5pm on Thursday 12th June 2025.
Next steps
The knowledge gap suggestions submitted by the community will be used to design and deliver a scoping workshop, informing discussions which will help refine the scope of a potential programme on ‘Unlocking the Subsurface’. NERC intends to publish a summary workshop report that will include knowledge gaps identified from this consultation. The workshop report will be made publicly available on the UKRI website.
How NERC will use your personal data
All personal data provided to NERC (as part of UK Research and Innovation) in connection to this survey and submitted via the survey form will be processed in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and the EU General Data Protection Regulations 2016/679 (GDPR) where appropriate.
Knowledge gap suggestions will be anonymised before sharing with workshop participants.
We will not pass your personal details (name and email address) to any third party without obtaining your prior permission.
Further information on how we use personal data, and how you can exercise your rights as a data subject, can be found on this page: UKRI Privacy Notice
Thank you in advance for sharing your views!
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