The UK has 12 laboratories in the areas of rock mechanics, rock physics, and petrophysics located at the Universities of Aberdeen, Durham, Edinburgh, Herriot-Watt, Leeds, Liverpool, Oxford, Manchester, Portsmouth, Southampton, the British Geological Survey, and University College London.
A key aim of the network is to share information amongst members: this also extends to the group laboratories advertising opportunities for prospective PhD students and post-doctoral fellows. For details see the News tab.
BritRock members have often devoloped free software tools for data analysis, available via GitHub and other sites. See the Software tools and links for a current list.
The EPOS project is designed to better understand the plate tectonics of Europe by bringing together a variety of observatories and communities. Currently in the implemenation phase, the project will porvide an interface for sharing data cross a wide range of data infrastructures, whether from the field, laboratory, or remote sensing.
BritRock is involved in Working Group 16 or "multi-scale laboratories" in its capacity represent all 12 of the UK's rock deformation laboratories, with is acheived in collaboration with the British Geological survery (BGS) who act as the national contact point and secretariat. An important and ongoing task is to work to define simple data standards so that researchers in all areas of rock deformation can understand and exchage data between groups. This is already part of the open acess agenda that requires any academic in recipt of a UK government grant (e.g. NERC, EPSRC, STFC) to provide and make available the output data of the study in a publicly accesses database: such as the National Geoscience Database located at the BGS. The BritRock group work closely with EPOS, BGS and NERC to ensure that this philosophy works for all involved without placing undue effort on researchers, with the aim to make the process as seamless as possible.
The relationship between BritRock and the Tectonic Studies Group began shortly after 2015 when BritRock needed a more formal framework and audit structure. By becoming an affiliate to the TSG, BritRock members participate in the TSG annual general meeting where we sponsor a student poster prize (£200). This is awarded for the student project that best features a novel element of laboratory rock deformation in the methodology or results. Through this affiliation, we abide by both the TSG guidelines and the Geological Society of Londons' code of professional conduct.
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