Why is geology important?  We are desperately short of natural resources in many parts of the world and suffer too often from the devastating effects of natural disasters. Many economies are based on exploiting natural resources and geology lies at the heart of many of today's most pressing environmental issues. Add this to the growing public interest in the environment and in particular climate change, solving the problem of excess CO2, or where energy is going to come from in the future. You then begin to understand the importance of geology.

OneGeology-Europe will make geological spatial data held by surveys and national geological institutes discoverable and accessible. This will allow researchers, consultants, environmentalists, construction and water industries, planners and local, regional and central governments to make more informed decisions about the resources underlying Europe. And not only: it will provide a means of seeing just what lies beneath your feet! .

 Specific objectives and achievements for OneGeology-Europe include:

· Enabling the exchange of science, technology, informatics and communication skills and experience across the EU

· A web-accessible, interoperable, geological spatial dataset for the whole of Europe at 1:1 million scale (using data held by pan-European Geological Surveys)

· Accelerating the development and deployment of the emerging international interchange standard language for geological information (GeoSciML)

· Enabling data sharing within the European geological community, also extending to encompass people who are interested for various reasons

· Making it easier for a wide range of both public and private sector organizations to use geological data through directives and codes of practice on licensing. Creating a common language that helps to acquire geological knowledge and move it closer to end-users for a greater public impact

· Providing ‘Best Practice’ examples of the delivery of high resolution geological spatial data to users

· Making substantial progress in the implementation of the INSPIRE European Directive.