Setting sail for EMODnet Data Ingestion III

At the kick-off meeting of the third phase of the EMODnet Data Ingestion project, the participants were visibly happy to meet up again for a much-awaited face-to-face meeting that allowed the newcomers to get to know the old hands of the network. The meeting brought together some 40 participants on 16 and 17 June in Glyfada (Athens, Greece), in the beautiful setting of the Oasis Hotel. Our warm thanks go to the HCMR colleagues for their excellent welcome and special efforts to accommodate the remote participation of 24 additional persons in a hybrid setting.

For this new phase, the data ambassadors from 43 institutions in 26 countries will (1) deepen their good relationships with providers active in their circle of activity (researchers from their organisation), (2) continue to keep the hatches open and market to potential data providers outside their organisation at national and European level (private sector, NGOs, governmental organisations), especially to under-represented sources and (3) focus their efforts to improve and document availability of data provided for coastal and offshore licenses. Simply put, "partners should target both the high and low hanging fruit as potential data sets for the project," said Dick Schaap as the project coordinator.

We are pleased to report that during the time between the end of the second phase of the project and the second month of the third, the network remained very active and increased the total number of submissions by 11% with a total number of data originators and holding centres reaching to 175 (on 9 June).

During the meeting, the leaders of the project work packages gave a briefing on their activities and work plan in the project: MARIS (Project management), HCMR (Construction and operation of the Data ingestion portal and its services), IFREMER (Pathways implementation and operation), ETT (facilitation of machine-to-machine transfers), and RBINS (Marketing and Outreach).

Deltares presented the strategy for mapping government stakeholders involved in coastal and offshore licensing activities. A survey will be launched shortly and in the second year of the project a dedicated workshop will involve targeted national contacts responsible for these licensing activities to inform them of the role they can play in unlocking and openly sharing with EMODnet the data collected contractually as part of these licensing activities. It is also foreseen to dedicate special case studies in support this new objective of the project.

Each partner organisation also reported on national progress about local marketing activities undertaken this year, potential data sources and who are national stakeholders for licensing data when they already knew that information. They received promotional material in support of their communication activities (stickers, bookmarks, booklets, pins, EMODnet notebooks and reports). The remaining A0 posters "Wake up your marine data" printed on polyester were also disseminated by RBINS on this occasion.

Take part in our success story. Join the EMODnet community and work your data at EMODnet-Ingestion.EU   Discover some of our success stories  and how to contribute data (short animation movies) 

Media