Corporate report

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting, 29 March 2022

Published 7 June 2022

Geospatial Commission: Board of Commissioners meeting, 29 March 2022

Google Meet

11.00 - 13.00

Attendees

Commissioners: Bernard Silverman (Chair), Nigel Clifford (Deputy Chair), Thalia Baldwin, Kru Desai, Alex Notay, Steve Unger

Nominated Commissioners: Karen Hanghøj, Peter Sparkes

Commission Unit: Jamie Clark, Chris Chambers, Joe Cuddeford, Ros Goodfellow, Heath Pritchard, Catherine Young, Aftab Khan (Minutes by: Liz Conn)

Observers: Glyn Jones (Wales), Jim Lennon (Northern Ireland), Andrew Trigg (HMLR)

Apologies: Edwina Dunn, Sarah Henry, Albert King,

External Speaker: Dr Michael Holynski PhD, University of Birmingham

1. Minutes and Matters Arising

1.1. As this was Kru Desai’s last meeting as Commissioner, the board expressed their gratitude for her tremendous contribution to the Commission and wished her farewell. Kru thanked the board for the opportunity of working with the Commission and its staff, adding that the way staff dealt with the workload during the pandemic had been exemplary.

1.2. Apologies were given for Edwina Dunn, Albert King and Sarah Henry.

1.3. No other matters were noted.

2. Report from the Nominated Commissioners

2.1. Karen Hanghøj gave a summary of the points raised at the Nominated Commissioners’ meeting on 24 March. The Partner Body CEOs had met at the UK Hydrographic Office’s headquarters on 3 March, with Sir Bernard also attending. It was a productive meeting, and, in particular, the geospatial skills gap was discussed.

2.2. Points were raised that there are multiple factors relevant for identifying and tackling current and future skills gaps that include pay but are also about bringing people into the public sector in an agile way and both recognising and creating an exciting narrative about the benefits of working there. The board encouraged the Commission to consider to what extent it could impact on, and take a leadership role in, the skills discussion.

2.3. The Partner Bodies will be setting up workshops to take deeper dives into the shared challenges they face, the first of which will be hosted by the British Geological Survey later this Spring.

3. Report from the Director of the Commission

3.1.     Thalia summarised activities and highlights across the Geospatial Commission during February and March, which included:

• publication of the assessment of the UK’s national geospatial data How FAIR are the UK’s geospatial assets? which was the result of collaboration with the Partner Bodies. The Commission has made a commitment to publish a Code of Practice for implementing FAIR next year. More information will be shared with the board over the coming months. Thalia thanked Kru for her contribution to the foreword.
• a project launched to support electric vehicle chargepoint infrastructure rollout and plans to feed into a larger programme of work. The Commission thanked Steve Unger for his work on this over the last year.

4. Geospatial Commission and the Partner Bodies: Creating a shared narrative for improved property data in the UK

4.1. Andrew Trigg (HM Land Registry) and Catherine Young joined the meeting. Catherine gave an overview of the Commission’s work to develop its understanding of key cross-government activities to improve UK property-level data.

4.2. Acknowledging that it is a crowded space, the board discussed the opportunity to convene a wider conversation about the future narrative for property data improvement across government and suggested areas of focus .

4.3. The Commission is seeking to shine a light on existing initiatives and identify cross-cutting barriers for maximum impact. The board discussed the potential scope of the project and government priorities that improved property data could support, and considered key contacts with whom the Commission could engage, both in the public and private sectors.

4.4. Andrew confirmed that HMLR welcomes the opportunity to create a single strategic approach to property data and that they look forward to working with the Commission on this.

4.5. The board thanked Andrew for joining, and the Commission team for the helpful summary. The board is supportive of the Commission convening a wider conversation across government and looking forward to reviewing progress.

5. External speaker - Dr Michael Holynski PhD, Senior Lecturer School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham

5.1. Dr Holynski joined the meeting and presented on the UK Quantum Technology Programme, which is focused on bringing innovative research on quantum sensing capability into the applied domain. The long term vision is to have cheap, deployable sensors that provide an improved view of the underworld, producing fast, high resolution gravity maps.

5.2. He spoke about the prototypes of gravity gradiometers, which the University of Birmingham has been working on for ten years and are a world first in the field of quantum gradiometry.

5.3. This cutting edge research is looking at enabling gravity cartography, relevant to a range of applications in mapping, including water monitoring, infrastructure, agriculture, navigation and earth observation.

5.4. The board thanked Dr Holynski for a fascinating presentation and offered their congratulations and encouragement. The UK Hydrographic Office is keen to follow up with a conversation about potential uses of the technology in defence, surveying and navigation.

6. National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) Update

6.1. Heath Pritchard joined the meeting. Chris Chambers gave an update on the NUAR programme, which is on track, with good progress made on the development of the platform.

6.2. The team is aiming to demonstrate the platform more widely in the market this year.

6.3. The market has been receptive and a number of asset owners have signed up. The Commission is working hard to onboard more asset owners by targeting the marketplace and raising awareness, including through a consultation on how NUAR will operate, to be launched in April.

6.4. The board thanked Chris and the team for their hard work and congratulated them on the progress made so far. They are keen to hear more after the consultation has ended.

7. Any Other Business

7.1. The May board meeting will be held earlier to accommodate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holidays. Dates will be confirmed as soon as possible.

7.2. It was proposed that the board should meet in person twice per year.