19.06.2014 IAEA

Objective:

To meet with Anton Ellenbroek to learn about iMarine and how MARiS could use the iMarine data infrastructure. Background iMarine is a data sharing and analysis infrastructure aimed at promoting the Ecosystem Approach to fisheries management and the conservation of living marine resources. iMarine evolved out of a need to better handle the disjoined and fragmented marine data networks, and offer an e-infrastructure that would improve the sharing and synthesis of data in a Virtual Research EnvironmentA ''system'' with the following distinguishing features: ''(i)'' it is a Web-based working environment; ''(ii)'' it is tailored to serve the needs of a Community of Practice; ''(iii)'' it is expected to provide a community of practice with the whole array of commodities needed to accomplish the community’s goal(s); ''(iv)'' it is open and flexible with respect to the overall service offering and lifetime; and ''(v)'' it promotes fine-grained controlled sharing of both intermediate and final research results by guaranteeing ownership, provenance, and attribution. (VREVirtual Research Environment.). In creating such an environment, the aim is to improve the use and accessibility of data for the purpose of collaborative research. Key Facts • iMarine is accessible through the iMarine gateway, which is supported by the D4ScienceAn e-Infrastructure operated by the D4Science.org initiative. e-InfrastructureAn operational combination of digital technologies (hardware and software), resources (data and services), communications (protocols, access rights and networks), and the people and organizational structures needed to support research efforts and collaboration in the large. and is powered by the gCube system. • The iMarine gateway allows access to several VREs, which are web-based working environments tailored to serve the needs of a specific research community. o For example the TabularDataLab VREVirtual Research Environment. supports the management of tabular data and is tailored to serve the needs of data curators and managers. The TabularDataLab VREVirtual Research Environment. can import, curate, analyse and publish tabular data resources in a collaborative way. • In addition to the VREs, iMarine offers access to a wide spectrum of datasets, see Useful Links. Potential ways MARiS could use iMarine • Dissemination of MARiS data. Data could be made accessible to users either by either serving it directly from iMarine servers or indirectly if the data remained on IAEA servers. Exposing MARiS data would be an easy task for iMarine. • MARiS database entry and management. iMarine could create an environment to manage the upload of data into the MARiS database. It has the capacity to correct spellings and check names, which, for example, would be particularly useful for ensuring the consistency of lab IDs or species names and is currently done manually. • Using Proficiency Tests (PT) to ensure data quality. The quality of data in MARiS must be assured, but making sure this is the case can be difficult and sometimes subjective. A solution that offers a quantitate assessment of data quality is that of linking PT results with data produced from the same labs. Currently, linking PT results and data from the same lab would be done offline with spreadsheets. iMarine could offer a way of bring PT results and data together so that QC assessment could be done online in a consistent manner. It was estimated that it would take about a month of development to implement such a system. • In the same sprit as integrating PT results with datasets to manage QC, the issue of ensuring continuity of metadata from a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) into MARiS was also discussed. This could also be area that iMarine could help with MARiS data management. • Facilitate the inclusion of other major data providers to MARiS. Items to Consider for MARiS • What are our needs and requirements for handling data? • Who are our users? • How do we intend to use MARiS data? Funding and Costs • The initial phase of iMarine was co-funded by the European Commission under the Capacities Programme, Framework Programme Seven (FP7). This initial start-up phase comes to an end in September 2014 and beyond then there will be three years of infrastructure and maintenance support. • In addition to this, iMarine is looking towards EU Horizon 2020 funding to allow it to continue to develop and is currently gearing up to apply for funding. A case for funding is strengthened by the involvement of European centric collaborations with iMarine, thus involvement with a UN agency such as the IAEA may not play to the strengths of the proposal. • No figure for the cost of MARiS using the iMarine platform could be quoted at this time because post September 2014 funding is currently unknown. However, the cost for iMarine to host and serve MARiS data would be relatively small.