The IAEA Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre (OA-ICC) organized a technical meeting on the management of biological response data related to ocean acidification, focusing specifically on the discovery and access of these data via a common data portal. The meeting was hosted at the IAEA Environment Laboratories in Monaco, November 17 – 18, 2015 and was a follow-up to two previous meetings held at the facility:
- Technical meeting on the management of biological data related to ocean acidification (April 2014): https://www.iaea.org/ocean-acidification/page.php?page=2228
- Technical meeting: “Towards a GOA-ON data portal” (June 2015): http://news-oceanacidification-icc.org/2015/06/03/technical-meeting-towards-a-goa-on-data-portal-1-2-june-2015-iaea-environment-laboratories-monaco/
The meeting brought together scientific and technical experts actively involved in the dissemination or use of ocean acidification data via web based portals, and technical experts providing similar technical capabilities in support of other areas of research.
The objectives of the meeting were to:
1. Provide updates on metadata and portal activities from:
a. 2014 workshop: “Technical meeting on management of biological data related to ocean acidification: international cooperation and development of standards”
b. 2015 workshop: “Technical meeting: Towards a GOA-ON data portal”
2. Finalize the direction for addressing ocean acidification portal needs with a specific focus on biological effects data
3. Develop a plan and establish commitments for completing the portal activity
The meeting provided an opportunity for researchers to communicate the vision for what a common portal should provide, a one-stop shop for the discovery and harmonized access to ocean acidification data.
Although the goal of providing harmonized access to data (rather having researchers download and assemble data for use) is a complex issue, the group agreed that implementing a common portal was an achievable goal and a useful starting point for collaboration.
A draft plan was developed with the short term goal of implementing a single portal connected to available data catalogues which include ocean acidification data. Users from the researcher community will be engaged in order to better understand how they search for ocean acidification data (what criteria are important and how are they used?), how they access ocean acidification data, and to identify gaps in current systems which inhibit or limit efficient discoverability of ocean acidification data.
The team reviewed activities resulting from the April 2014 workshop related to the implementation of ocean acidification metadata standards and it was agreed that this work should be communicated and involve the GOA-ON community in order to address gaps within that program.
A commitment was made to undertake a more detailed analysis of metadata served through existing data catalogues in order to identify content gaps and to seek opportunities to standardize in areas which will facilitate discovery of relevant ocean acidification data (use of common controlled vocabularies, enriching metadata content, etc.).
The schedule for the project is very aggressive with expectations that significant progress will begin to be made by the first and second quarters of 2016. A draft version of the portal will be demonstrated at The Oceans in a High CO2 World 4 in Hobart, May 2016.
