Helping The Crown Estate Transform Marine Data Management for Sustainable Development.

The Crown Estate (TCE) is a £14.1 billion real estate business responsible for managing the UK’s onshore and offshore assets. It oversees a marine portfolio vital to the UK’s sustainable ocean management and renewable energy goals, including seabed leases, renewable energy sites, and conservation areas. At the core of this portfolio is the Marine Data Exchange (MDE), a platform for managing and sharing offshore survey data. 

The brief.

The Marine Data Exchange (MDE), managed by The Crown Estate, is a key platform for storing, discovering, and sharing marine survey data. Since 2020, Ascent has partnered with The Crown Estate to modernise the MDE Public and Developer portals, enhancing accessibility, usability, and engagement through AI driven innovation and advanced data management. The aging MDE platform limited data interrogation and insights, requiring a transformation to enhance governance, security, and public engagement. The Crown Estate also sought to align the platform with its Net Zero marine sustainability goals.

The solution.

Ascent’s modernisation of the Marine Data Exchange focused on enhancing usability, scalability, and insight generation across both the Public and Developer portals. By integrating AI, automation, and cloud efficiencies, Ascent delivered a future-ready platform that meets the growing demands of marine data users and aligns with The Crown Estate’s sustainability goals.

Key Enhancements Included:

• AI-Driven Search & Insights Advanced search and chat evaluation and thematic summaries for QA processes.

• Enhanced Security & Authentication Migration from Auth0 to Entra ID B2C for multi-factor authentication and improved governance.

• Automated Metadata Processing Automated metadata population, data tracking catalogues, and classification improvements.

• Geospatial Search & UX Enhancements – Interactive maps, metadata tools, and an improved admin portal.  

The outcome.

In the past year, Ascent has refined search precision, automated metadata workflows, and strengthened security with new authentication systems. Data engineering efforts have improved automation, introduced a sandbox environment, and upgraded architecture. Over the next 12 months, Ascent will enhance AI driven insights and integrate chatbots for public engagement. Ascent’s structured, data-driven approach has transformed the MDE, making marine data more accessible, insightful, and sustainable. Continued innovation will further position MDE as a leader in marine data governance and environmental sustainability.

With Ascent’s expertise and approach we have transformed the Marine Data Exchange, making improvements in search, metadata quality, and user engagement while strengthening security and governance - making marine data more accessible, insightful, and sustainable.”

Tazz Shaw, Lead Product Manager