Vision, Mission, Goals and Values

Our Vision

Our vision for the NOC is by 2025 to be seen as the world’s most innovative oceanographic institution.

Our Mission

Our main mission as the National Oceanography Centre is to make sense of changing seas, upon which future human prosperity and wellbeing depends. The way in which we intend to achieve our mission is by

Undertaking and enabling world-class science and technology development;
Providing large research facilities and access to data and samples for the benefit of UK science
Creating value and public benefit by supporting, with scientific evidence, the development of public policy, hazard assessment, ocean governance and regulation, and sustainable development

Going forwards, we will better exploit the synergies across these different supporting pillars of our mission to drive novel and innovative approaches to our work, enabling us to do things that are distinctive and that few others could do.

Our Strategic Goals

Our Strategic Goals are a balanced series of aims that will help us work together as ‘one NOC’ in driving forwards the whole organisation towards our common vision. Under each of these goals are high-level Strategic Objectives that emphasise integration and innovation.

The first four goals relate directly to different aspects of our primary purpose of advancing science;

Goal 1: Undertake internationally excellent research and technology development to advance the frontiers of knowledge about the ocean
Goal 2: Create public benefit from all of the NOC’s capabilities
Goal 3: Successfully translate world-leading and innovative research and technology developments to achieve wider impact
Goal 4: Provide world-class underpinning capabilities that enable the UK and global ocean scientific endeavour

The remaining three goals enable those above:

Goal 5: Responsibly grow and diversify revenue to sustain our mission with a critical mass of scientific and technical capability
Goal 6: Transform the way the NOC is governed and operated
Goal 7: Invest and reinvest in the NOC and its people

Our Values

Through wide discussion across all levels of the NOC, we have reached consensus on our shared values. These are guiding not just what we do but how we do it and how we make decisions.