Ireland: An Emerging Core Nation Presenting: Dr Stephen McCarron, National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM) Also representing the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) and Marine Institute INFOMAR programme teams Continued development of a dedicated MSCL-centred analysis NUIM: Irish Sediment COre Research Facility (ISCORF)

Irish National Seabed Survey (GSI) and INFOMAR (GSI/MI) programmes (Very Approximate) Irish Offshore Territorial Claim

Irish National Seabed Survey (GSI) and INFOMAR (GSI/MI) programmes 1 1.NUIM 2.UCD 3.TCD 4.DCU 5.UCC/CMRC 6.MIL 7.NUIG 8.MI 9.UU e.g. Markers = 2007 & 2009 v.cores held at NUIM Marine & ‘Palaeo-marine’ research group host institutions

Plans Develop a centralised coordination and metadata management role for GSI, or agent. –Begun in June 2010; Strengthen a ‘Virtual Core Lab’ (analysis and storage) in the Greater Dublin area; Work to increase national distributed repository capacity and associated data infrastructure; –Small refrigerated ‘coldstore’ planned for construction Q –Produce ‘GEOCORES’ geodatabase listing cores stored and analysis performed Q Expand research and teaching capacity at each laboratory and ‘student expectations’ of access to research facilities nationally. Thank you. Dept. of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth