The CEH Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) underpins all CEH scientific challenges. Its primary purpose is to provide the capability to co-ordinate our extensive information assets and thereby support integrated environmental research. To achieve this goal requires a corporate approach for the curation and integration of science information assets across all the Science Programmes to make them more readily accessible to all. This novel construct will evolve during the next five years and requires the development of new skills and expertise. The EIDC will develop informatics tools such as the Information Gateway to disseminate CEH data and contribute to NERC's data discovery services. This will meet our wider obligations including those of a NERC Designated Data Centre (DDC) and compliance with the EU INSPIRE Directive. A key deliverable is provision of an integrated reference service linking libraries, archives, samples and digital data as an institutional repository.