13:30 Opening statements

• Claire Jolly, Head STI Ocean Economy Group, OECD Secretariat
• Emma Heslop, Programme Specialist, Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) Office from the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO
• Clare Postlethwaite, Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) Coordinator, National Oceanography Centre
• Alan Paic, Senior Economist, OECD Secretariat - Introducing the OECD Recommendation on Access to Research Data from Public Funding

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14:00 Session 1. Strategic approaches to sustainable marine data infrastructures 

Observational systems as well as marine data management systems are forming crucial infrastructure for ocean monitoring and science, bringing value to society. This session will focus on sustainability and funding models for selected components of the crucial value chains linking marine observations to data management and archiving infrastructures. A strategic approach to ensure sustainability is particularly called by the recently revised OECD Council Recommendation on Access to Research Data from Public Funding, prioritising high value data for long term preservation and ensuring an adequate match between the time horizon of funding instruments with the expected longevity of the data. It also encourages private investment in research data infrastructures while taking measures to facilitate their openness, reliability and integrity, and to protect the public interest over the long term by avoiding vendor lock in and ensuring data portability. Stakeholders will present use cases and possible solutions to steer towards sustainable funding for marine data.

• Martin Visbeck, Prof. for Physical Oceanography at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and Kiel University - An overview of the marine research data landscape: Review of challenges to overcome
• Emily Smith, Argo Programme Manager in GOMO/NOAA – A successful global observing system in practice: the Argo system partnership
• Sheila Heymans, European Marine Board – EMB recommendations on sustained ocean observation infrastructure

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14:50 Session 2. International cooperation for access to research data: lessons learned and way forward

This session will focus on collaboration at the international level on access to marine research data in order to enhance scientific discovery and contribute to solving global societal challenges. Like other instruments at international levels, the OECD Recommendation particularly calls on achieving synergies through international co-operation on data infrastructures. This involves the development of common standards and certification processes, and building a digitally-skilled research workforce through exchange programmes. It recognizes too that providing open access to an exponentially rising volume of research data and other research-relevant digital objects can be resource-intensive and subject to resource constraints, thus requiring prioritisation in the provision of access. Finally, the Recommendation recognises “sensitive research data”, with the long term objective to develop internationally compatible procedures (i.e., determining the degree of sensitivity of data, establishing criteria and protocols for the certification of institutions and researchers gaining access to such data, and establishing technological standards and approaches for secure remote access to such datasets). Stakeholders will present use cases for marine data at international, regional and national levels, highlighting challenges and recent progress.

• Peter Pissierssens, IOC/IODE, The International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) model (international)
• Jan-Bart Calewaert, Head of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet) - The EMODnet model (European level)
• Clare Postlethwaite, UK MEDIN - The UK Marine Environmental Data and Information Network: MEDIN (national)
• Claudia Gili, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn - A special zoom on sharing sensitive marine biological data

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