The Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) coordinates CEH data activities and is the NERC Data Centre for the Terrestrial and Freshwater Sciences. The EIDC brings together wide-ranging nationally-important datasets and expertise in managing different types of environmental data.

The aim of the EIDC is to give researchers access to the coordinated data resources and informatics tools needed to find answers to complex, multidisciplinary environmental questions. 

EIDC objectives are as follows:

• Develop a framework to ensure the quality, security and reusability of CEH and NERC data
• Describe and curate CEH information resources and integrate key data holdings
• Provide access to CEH’s key data and information assets, ensure CEH meets its legal obligations for data sharing (e.g the EC INSPIRE DIRECTIVE) and promote EIDC’s role as a NERC Designated Data Centre
• Advance informatics research to meet CEH data in information needs and to contribute to national and international data sharing and monitoring initiatives (e.g. the Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS), the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), and the European Earth Observation Programme (GMES).

The EIDC has created the INSPIRE-compliant CEH Information Gateway to provide easier access to terrestrial and freshwater datasets.  CEH has started an on-going programme to add information about its datasets to the CEH Information Gateway and to make more of them directly accessible via the Gateway, but while this is under way you can find out more about CEH-held datasets here.

The EIDC encompasses CEH’s work on the following:

• Biological Records Centre
• National River Flow Archive
• NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre (NEBC)
• Countryside Survey datasets
• Environmental Change Network datasets