Linking Data from a National Oceanographic Research Program to Global Data Frameworks

Abstract:

In the period 2008-2015 Dutch marine and oceanographic research was organized in a single, large national program, under the name ‘Sea and Coastal Research’ (Dutch acronym: ZKO). This ZKO program consisted of some 57 different projects, covering all major oceanographic disciplines. The research areas ranged from the Dutch coast and the Wadden Sea to the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

From the outset the ZKO program comprehensively  addressed data management. As such a data policy was written requiring open access to all data resulting from the program. All project PIs signed to agree with this data policy. In addition, a separate project was funded to establish the ZKO data facility and to preserve ZKO data for future re-use. The ZKO data facility is part of the data center of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). The NIOZ data center in turn is actively involved in the cyberinfrastructures of the Netherlands National Oceanographic Data Committee (NL-NODC) and the pan-European SeaDataNet project. As a result, an unprecedented level of standardization was achieved, ensuring that the ZKO data are preserved and made available through global systems.

This presentation will provide a concise overview of the ZKO program in The Netherlands. The emphasis will be on how the data management of the program was organized and what lessons can be learned from the chosen approach. Finally, the links with national and international oceanographic cyberinfrastructures will be highlighted and it will be shown how data from ZKO funded projects is made available to a global audience.