The new BGS strategy requires skills to evolve over time. BGS’s national capability role demands a range of skills; from observation, data generation and monitoring, to interpretation, modelling, visualisation and data management. There will be a constant requirement for the application of excellent, relevant geoscience for society, and an entrepreneurial understanding of client need and market opportunity. Our scientists will need to attract research grants from NERC and other sources to enable the organisation to pursue cutting-edge science. The skills required to secure these grants is key to a future funding stream and will be developed as a priority. BGS will strive to offer a range of development opportunities including bespoke in-house courses, educational opportunities from NVQ to PhD level and funding conference attendance and external courses. All staff will have individual training and development plans and will be encouraged to engage in continual professional development activities. BGS and NERC will seek to offer more placement and secondment opportunities.
The UK is a multicultural country with a rich mix of ethnicity, religious affiliation, and language. The scientific community has not, as yet, fully harnessed the skill opportunities present within our diverse communities. BGS promotes an open, welcoming, mutually respectful and tolerant work culture that aims to attract excellence regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, age or disability. We will actively work with a range of communities within schools, colleges, universities and the general public to promote science as a career choice.
The crux of our people strategy is summarised as: developing an organisation that is vibrant and innovative, that will act as a hub and a catalyst for whole-community collaboration and interaction, producing excellent and relevant applied geoscience.
BGS University Funding Initiative and GeoSchool
The BGS University Funding Initiative (BUFI) will provide a collaborative science platform at the PhD and Postdoctoral level between BGS and the UK higher education sector. In the next five years BUFI will play a pivotal role in increasing the BGS international scientific profile by being one of the key avenues linking BGS scientists to the UK and international academic communities. It will also encourage collaboration between geoscience, social science, IT, planning and economics departments. BUFI will enable BGS to be recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of excellence for training the next generation of applied earth scientists.