1. 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 suite @ NUIM: Irish Sediment COre Research Facility (ISCORF)

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

3. 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 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 e.g. Markers = 2007 & 2009 v.cores held at NUIM Marine & ‘Palaeo-marine’ research group host institutions

4. Plans 2012 + 2013 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 Q1 2012 –Produce ‘GEOCORES’ geodatabase listing cores stored and analysis performed Q1 2012 Expand research and teaching capacity at each laboratory and ‘student expectations’ of access to research facilities nationally. Thank you. stephen.mccarron@nuim.ie Dept. of Geography, National University of Ireland Maynooth