Background information and context
A vision for the accessibility and interoperability of marine knowledge in 2020 was set out in the European Commission's 2012 Green Paper
"(...) a seamless multi-resolution digital seabed map of European waters by 2020. It should be of the highest resolution possible, covering topography, geology, habitats and ecosystems. It should be accompanied by access to timely observations and information on the present and past physical, chemical and biological state of the overlying water column, by associated data on human activities, by their impact on the sea and by oceanographic forecasts. All this should be easily accessible, interoperable and free of restrictions on use. It should be nourished by a sustainable process that progressively improves its fitness for purpose and helps Member States maximise the potential of their marine observation, sampling and surveying programmes".
Much of the progress so far has been achieved by a partnership of over a hundred European organisations working through the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet, an initiative launched by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Maritime and Fisheries (DG MARE) as part of its Marine Knowledge 2020 strategy. Under EMODnet, these organisations work together to assemble marine data from diverse sources and resources in order to make them more accessible and more interoperable. Part of their work involves building gateways to national, regional or thematic repositories and creating products such as digital terrain models or sediment maps based on marine and maritime data held by public bodies. However, many data collected by public authorities, researchers and private operators of coastal or offshore facilities still do not arrive to these national or regional repositories and are thus unavailable to scientists and engineers. This creates additional costs for those working on marine issues who will have the choice of accepting lower confidence in their analysis than would otherwise be the case, or being compelled to needlessly repeat observations.
There is therefore the need to streamline the data ingestion process so that data holders from public and private sectors can easily release their data for safekeeping and subsequent distribution through EMODnet or other means.
Increasing the accessibility and interoperability of marine data, as set out by the Commission in 2010 will contribute to increasing productivity of those working on marine issues, stimulating innovation in the blue economy and reducing uncertainty in our knowledge of the behaviour of the sea. This is in line with the EU's digital agenda and it will be an essential contribution to the data and information sharing provisions in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive and the Maritime Spatial Planning Directive.
The need for this particular action on data ingestion was outlined in the "roadmap for marine knowledge 2020" Further insights into the difficulties of the present process were gained in a workshop on 26 June 2014 where issues such as common terminology, aggregation levels of data and automation of the ingestion process were discussed. The action was eventually included as part of the 2015 work programme for the implementation of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF)
Specific objectives are to:
- Construct a web-portal that can accept submissions of marine data. This will be hosted on a contractor's platform;
- Implement pathways to forward submitted data to appropriate existing repositories, where data will be stored;
- Facilitate machine-to-machine transfers from monitoring stations to repositories;
- Operate a help-service that helps users provide their data in the most appropriate format;
- Allow providers of data to track the progress of their data from submission through to their storage in a repository;
- Allow users to express needs for data and so build up an inventory of requirements;
- Participate in discussions with EMODnet partners in order to improve the efficiency of the whole collection, assembly and dissemination process;
- Maintain a summary record of data delivered;
- Encourage holders who submit data for licensing, to make their data available;
- Guarantee the potential continuity of the service, by putting in place relevant mechanisms to ensure an efficient handover to the Commission or to any other potential service provider after contract expiry.
Tendering documents published here;
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