In September 2008, the Northeast Atlantic Geoscience (NAG) cooperation framework was agreed to by the chief executives of the BGR (German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources), BGS (British Geological Survey), GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland), GSI (Geological Survey of Ireland), GSNI (Geological Survey of Northern Ireland), ÍSOR(Iceland GeoSurvey), JF (Jarðfeingi, Faroe Islands), NGU (Geological Survey of Norway), and TNO (The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research). The purpose of this agreement was multifold. In addition to sharing knowledge and resources on critical issues facing each of the surveys, it was envisioned that an economy of scale could be achieved by developing projects that no single survey could carry out alone. Since the agreement was signed, three major initiatives have moved forward, of which NAG-TEC is one.  Additional initatives are NAG-CITY and NAG-Coast.