12654a08-538e-412f-be8c-abfa910e0d33 English series series 2026-09-01T07:45:05 MEDIN 3.1.2 biota Biodiversity indices SeaDataNet Parameter Discovery Vocabulary 2026-06-19 revision Research The Crown Estate Renewable Energy Development Phases 2012-05-15 revision Research and Development Activity The Crown Estate Renewable Energy Development Areas 2012-05-15 revision Administrative units GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2009-07-31 revision 1 SeaDataNet sea areas 2012-11-07 revision North Sea SeaDataNet sea areas 2012-11-07 revision English Channel SeaDataNet sea areas 2012-11-07 revision Celtic Sea SeaDataNet sea areas 2012-11-07 revision North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) SeaDataNet sea areas 2012-11-07 revision Irish Sea and St. George's Channel SeaVoX Vertical Co-ordinate Coverages 2020-05-21 revision inapplicable 2025-06-17T23:00:00 2026-02-28T00:00:00 -16 4 47 64 TCE-4541 Marine Data Exchange 2025-2026, JNCC, Offshore Wind Evidence and Change Programme, OWEER Gap Analysis and Reprioritisation (OWGRE) 2025-06-17T23:00:00 creation 2026-08-28T15:12:31 publication English The Crown Estate commissioned JNCC to review the Offshore Wind Environmental Evidence Register (OWEER) in 2025. This was the first time since the OWEER was established in 2021, that a deep dive review was carried out. The purpose of the review wasto understand whether and which evidence gaps listed in the register had been closed by OWEC and a targeted selection of other research programmes that included ScotMER, ORJIP, OESEA and OWEAP). The review also conducted a reprioritisation of the remaining open evidence gaps. This work was commissioned primarily to inform future funding priorities from the remaining OWEC research budget and so the OWGRE work went a step further to ask the JNCC to advise which of the remaining evidence gaps were an immediate, short and medium term need, based on a publicly available pipeline of offshore wind project target commissioning dates. The OWGRE work is complete and there are two reports available on the MDE: • Assessment of evidence gap closure in the Offshore Wind Environmental Evidence Register (OWEER) • Recommended Priority Funding Areas For The Offshore Wind Evidence And Change Programme (OWEC) The Recommended Priority Funding Areas report identifies a list of evidence gaps that JNCC have advised need to be closed in the immediate, short or medium term. The OWGRE work also identified opportunities to enhance and build on the OWEER content to enable a more efficient approach to assessing evidence gap closure for the future. These enhancements are being taken forward in follow up to OWGRE. Work has already been delivered to improve the user experience by digitalising the OWEER and TCE are now scoping work with JNCC to enhance the evidence gap definition and the prioritisation approach. The OWEER is now here: https://owekh.com/evidence-register/about Feedback is welcomed via the tool. OWEC will carry out some additional work to further refine the evidence priorities identified by the OWGRE reports to inform targeting of its remaining funds. This further refinement process is expected to conclude by beginning of Q3 2026. There will be no limitations when published on the Marine Data Exchange otherRestrictions Data Must be used in accordance to the Marine Data Exchange's Terms of Use: https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/content/info/terms-of-use otherRestrictions The Crown Estate +44 020 7851 5000 enquiries@thecrownestate.co.uk custodian Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough Office communications@jncc.gov.uk originator The Crown Estate +44 020 7851 5000 enquiries@thecrownestate.co.uk distributor The Crown Estate mde@thecrownestate.co.uk owner notPlanned Documents https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk/details/TCE-4541/summary A link to the web service or dataset. https://www.marinedataexchange.co.uk A link to the general host site. Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08T00:00:00 publication Conformity with the Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 was either not relevant to this dataset or not a requirement of the Marine Data Exchange for the creation and submission of this dataset; therefore, conformity has not been assessed and cannot be declared False series Within the OWEER, evidence gaps are prioritised according to a points-based scoring system, which was developed and agreed between Defra, JNCC, and the OWEER Project Advisory Group (PAG). Annual updates to the OWEER, including any changes to prioritisation scores, are reviewed by the OWEER PAG, which includes sector experts from government and SNCBs. Evidence gaps are scored using four criteria (Table 1). The criteria are based on the potential of an evidence gap to reduce consenting risk once addressed, as well as on the species and theme which the gap covers. Scores for each criterion are combined by multiplying the high weighting scores (Criteria 1 and 2) and adding the low weighting scores (Criteria 3 and 4) to derive an overall priority score (Equation 1): Overall score = (Criteria 1 × Criteria 2) + (Criteria 3 + Criteria 4) (Equation 1) The resulting range of possible overall scores is therefore 3-15. The highest score a gap can be assigned is 15 and is thus considered to be of the highest priority. Before the reprioritisation of evidence gaps was carried out for OWGRE, Criteria 2 and Criteria 3 were updated by the OWEER PAG to better reflect the consenting risk timeline, while Criteria 1 and Criteria 4 remained unchanged from previous versions of the OWEER (see Table 1 for details). Consent means all necessary permissions from UK licensing authorities, as appropriate, that are required for the construction and operation of an OW project. Consenting risk refers to the uncertainty and potential delays or restrictions associated with securing and maintaining regulatory approvals for OW projects. This risk is highest during the pre-consent phase, when developers invest in surveys, environmental assessments, and stakeholder engagement without certainty that consent will be granted. At this stage, issues related to benthic, fish, marine mammals, and ornithology receptors can significantly influence outcomes, as these receptors often drive mitigation requirements and cumulative impact assessments. Once consent is granted, risk decreases but persists through construction, as developers must discharge conditions and may seek variations for design changes. Post-construction, risk is low but ongoing as developers must comply with monitoring obligations and environmental conditions, and any breach can lead to enforcement action. Towards the end of life for OW projects, repowering or life-extension proposals reintroduce consenting risk, as new assessments may be required, while decommissioning obligations also carry residual risk. All evidence gaps per receptor were reprioritised, including those that were not assessed for closure as part of OWGRE, following the standard methodology used for OWEER updates, but based on the slightly amended criteria. The Crown Estate Marine Data and Evidence Advisor mde@thecrownestate.co.uk pointOfContact EPSG Geodetic Parameter Registry 2022-11-29 revision WGS 84