The UK’s Regulators’ Pioneer Fund has awarded the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) £107,000 (approximately $142,700) for a project intended to make North Sea data easier to access.
The funding will be split between two work streams, one creating an enhanced geospatial data viewer, which is intended to help users by bringing together data sets from multiple government agencies in one place.
The second will create an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to assist users in navigating NSTA’s Open Data and National Data Repository portals, with potential expansion to other platforms. The chatbot would be designed to provide reliable responses to research queries.
“Good decision-making requires easy access to reliable information,” said Nic Granger, NSTA chief information and financial officer and chair of the Offshore Energy Digital Strategy Group (DSG). “The NSTA and our partners in the DSG each have huge resources of high-quality data, and we are dedicated to sharing it as widely as possible.
The goal is for the work streams, which will be assessed in April 2026, to make information more accessible to users who will be able to reach better decisions about a range of potential North Sea projects.
The DSG was set up following the publication of the Digitalising Offshore Energy Systems report, which called on the oil and gas and renewables sectors to work together to use the North Sea to its full capacity and reduce emissions to meet net zero targets.
“Every day across the country new products are being invented that have the potential to transform lives and revolutionize public services,” said Liz Kendall, the UK’s secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology. “But all too often, we are held back from taking advantage of them by red tape that simply hasn’t kept pace with the scientific and technological advances. That’s why we’re backing our regulators to work together with industry, to make the rules fit for purpose and unlock breakthroughs that will deliver national renewal by driving our economy forwards faster, easier, and safely.”