News story: NCGI success at the GSE Geography in Government Awards 2019

At the inaugural Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Geography in Government Awards on 25 April 2019, six nominations from the National Centre for Geospatial Intelligence (NCGI), part of Defence Intelligence (an organisation within the Joint Forces Command), were shortlisted. This is a notable recognition of our geospatial skills and contribution in a field of over 40 nominations from across the public sector.

As part of the NCGI, the Defence Geographic Centre’s Learning and Development Team were announced as the winners of the award for “Contribution to the Profession”.

The team has been instrumental in formulating and redesigning the MOD Geospatial Analyst Function Competence Framework, rebranding and enhancing it to align with the GSE Geography profession.

The team also designed and delivered the Geospatial Managers Development Programme; a tailored course, designed to support the growth of GSE Geography within MOD by delivering development and professionalisation interventions for staff across a range of grades.

Other NCGI successes in the shortlist were:

Service personnel from 42 Engineer Regt (Geo) (part of the NCGI)

For dedicating considerable personal time to teaching and inspiring the next generation of geographers at Comberton Village College through the ESRI Geo Mentoring Scheme.

A team from Defence Geographic Centre (DGC)

For developing and sustaining an international network of experts engaged in spatial socio-cultural developments, promoting the contribution of the profession, geospatial information principles and analysis techniques to understand and respond to complex problems.

A team from DGC

For developing a “Country Insight” product, which is a country-wide situational awareness product providing foundation geospatial information about a range of key themes to provide context and understanding to defence users. It consists of a geodatabase of fully attributed data which can be manipulated or incorporated with other datasets to support wider analysis and assessment activities.

A joint team from DGC and No 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit (No 1 AIDU) (also part of NCGI)

For producing the first two Low Flying Charts to standardise the symbology across the 1:50,000, 1:250,000 and 1:500,000 scales to improve flight safety. Pilots and navigators now see standardised symbology across this range of air charts as they zoom in and out on their cockpit tablets, making the identification of obstructions and air space clearer.

DGC’s personnel embedded within Defence Intelligence HQ

For identifying the potential for bespoke very small-scale 3D perspective maps to provide MOD senior officers and Ministers with enhanced situational awareness for planning and policy purposes

What is GSE Geography?

In early 2018 a new cross-government geography profession was created within the family of the GSE profession, headed by a Senior Civil Servant supported by 11 deputy heads across the public sector.

The MOD’s existing civilian Geospatial Analyst profession was aligned and renamed as the Defence Geography profession in April 2019. Most of its members work within the NCGI and the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), and are being encouraged to also join the broader GSE Geography profession. Military personnel who are in geospatial-related roles are also eligible to join the new profession.

GSE Geography has reached over 850 members in little over a year and is rapidly becoming a significant contributor to the development of the public sector’s new Analysis Function.

Ian Spencer (NCGI Deputy Head for Foundation (NCGI-F) and Director Defence Geographic Centre (DGC) is one of the deputy heads of GSE Geography and is its lead within MOD.

Job opportunities within NCGI can be found on Civil Service Jobs and Service Recruiting websites.