Statement of Need for a National Chemical Database Service

The EPSRC has recently initiated a review of its current 'Mid Range facilities'. The Chemical Database Service (CDS) at Daresbury, which provides free at the point of access for all UK academics to important databases, is one of these facilities.

The CDS is a National service providing on-line access to up-to-date, comprehensive, high quality chemical databases and ancillary facilities. These databases provide the three dimensional structure, spectroscopic data and physical properties of molecules which are crucial to the understanding, enhancement and production of new materials and processes. The communities served by the CDS are very far reaching and include users from not only chemistry disciplines but also material science, physics, engineering and biological sciences, etc.

As part of the overall review process, the EPSRC has asked all relevant communities to prepare and submit a Statement of Need (SoN) drawing from the communities served by Mid Range Facilities rather than the organisations currently providing these services. In response, members of the chemistry community have put in place an electronic 'iPetition'. The purpose of this petition is to provide a mechanism for the UK academic community to register its support for continued access to the kind of database facilities currently provided by the CDS. It can be found at:- http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ChemicalDatabaseService/