Fulfilling Schmidt Ocean Institute’s commitment to open sharing of information, data, and research outcomes: Successes and Lessons Learned from Proposal Evaluation to Public Repositories to Lasting Achievements

Schmidt Ocean Institute’s vision is that the world’s ocean be understood through technological advancement, intelligent observation, and open sharing of information. As such, making data collected aboard R/V Falkor available to the general public is a key pillar of the organization and a major strategic focus. Schmidt Ocean Institute supports open sharing of information about the ocean to stimulate the growth of its applications and user community, and amplify further exploration, discovery, and deeper understanding of our environment. These efforts are supported through partnerships with data management experts in the oceanographic community to enable standards-compliant sharing of scientific information and data collected during research cruises.

To properly fulfill the commitment, proponents’ data management plans are evaluated as part of the proposal process when applying for ship time. We request a thorough data management plan be submitted and expert reviewers evaluate the proposal’s plan as part of the review process. Once a project is successfully selected, the chief scientist signs an agreement stating delivery dates for post-cruise data deliverables in a timely manner, R/V Falkor underway and meterological data is shared via public repositories, and links and reports are posted on the cruise webpage. This allows many more creative minds and thinkers to analyze, process, and study the data collected in the world ocean rather than privileging one scientist with the proprietary information, driving international and national scientific progress.

This presentation will include the Institute’s mission, vision, and strategy for sharing data, based on our Founders' passions, the process for evaluating proposed data management plans, and our partnering efforts to make data publically available in fulfillment of our commitment. Recent achievements and successes in data sharing, as well as future plans to improve our efforts will also be discussed.