ELECTIONS OF NEW CO-CHAIRS AT IODE-XXVII

As the current IODE Co-Chairs have completed the maximum of two terms it will be necessary for the IODE Committee to elect 2 new Co-Chairs.

In order to call for candidates for the 2 Co-Chair positions te IOC Secretariat sent out IOC Circular Letter 2885 on 20 April 2022. This letter called for candidatures (deadline 1 July 2022). This call resulted in 2 candidatures. 

CANDIDATES (official nominations)

Lotta Fyrberg (Sweden)

Date of birth: 5 March 1959

Languages: Swedish (native), English (active), Spanish (active), French (passive), Italien (passive), Hebrew (passive)

Current position: Senior data manager and oceanographer, SMHI

Education: 1991, MSc. Physical Oceanography

Curriculum vitae:

• Assistant in the late 80’s at the Oceanographic Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, on board R/V Svanic.
• Attended extra postgraduate courses in Optical oceanography (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Fisheries biology (University of Gothenburg).
• Cruise leader in early 90’s on board R/V Argos, spending about 15 weeks/year on board including specialized cruises for ICES fish stock estimations performed by the former National Board of Fisheries (presently Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences).
• Involved in and participated in the Baltic experiment PEX (ICES Patchiness Experiment) in 1986, as well as in SKAGEX (Skagerrak Experiment) in 1990 and the Gulf of Bothnia Year in 1990-1991. Swedish cruise leader in several HELCOM Intercalibrations at sea.
• Member of the former ICES Group; WGMDM (Working Group on Marine Data Management) and WGDIM (Working Group on Data and Information Management), now DIG (Data and Information Group).
• Head of the Oceanographic Unit at SMHI (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) 2007-2012.
• Attended DIVA (Data Interpolating Variational Analysis) courses in 2014 & 2015 and IODE’s Quality Management System Essentials for NODCs and ADUs course in 2017.
• Initiated in 2017 SMHI application to be appointed NODC, presently working towards accreditation of the NODC by IODE.
• SMHI internal Project leader for SeaDataNet/SeaDataCloud, EMODnet Data Ingestion and EMODnet-Chemistry.
• Involved in IODE work from 2003. IODE National Coordinator for Oceanographic Data Management since 2015.
• Member of SDN AiSBL.
• Member of Steering Group for EMODnet-Chemistry.
• Former member of Steering Group for SeaDataNet.
• Member of the SG of the IODE project GOSUD (Global Ocean Surface Underway Data) since 2022.

Personal perspectives on the future of IODE:

IODE must strive to be more VISIBLE, raise enough RESOURCES and to be ACKNOWLEDGED for its work and services, in order to fulfill its global role.

How do we achieve this?

To fulfill IODEs mission as the global network for data and information management, IODE needs interested and active members. In my view this can only be done by asking all the individual members what they expect from IODE and what kind of services and assistance they need to achieve this.

Modern technology enables, not only exchanging data between member countries or sending data to global repositories, but harvesting data from distributed databases/systems facilitating accessibility and interoperability using recommended standards and best practices. OTGA’s courses and e-Learning Platform can make substantial impact educating the variety of different data centres in accordance with IODE Quality Management Framework. Substantial work has for example been made in Europe by EMODnet, which should be considered.

The IODE repositories like for example the ISC WDS, must therefore continuously harvest data in order to be the global up to date long-term data and metadata archive. The repositories also need promotion to be visible, referred to and used in daily work outside IODE. OTGA has an important mission making up to date technological knowledge available to all data centres within IODE.

IODE has established valuable links with WMO and GOOS, and it is my belief that these linkages must be further strengthened to avoid duplicate work and to adhere to the same data management principles in order to get global coherence over the continents.

The progress of IOC Ocean Data Information System (ODIS) is vital and must be prioritized by all the IODE Member States to become the global catalogue for everyone to search for continuously updated information and products. The regional alliances involvement can make positive difference by contributing to the network.

Alongside this, it is essential that IODE’s high profile and widely used global data projects, the World Ocean Database (WOD) and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), continue to be developed and enhanced.

All IODE Member States should work according to the FAIR guiding principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) for scientific data management and stewardship in order to serve society and to achieve fully Open Data on a global scale and to promote cooperation over the disciplines.

For the benefit of society and its users the CARE guiding principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) must be taken into account for Indigenous Data Governance when appropriate.

The increasing importance of relevant metadata, accompanying the data, are vital for understanding the oceans and should be emphasized in IODE’s mission and thus by all Member States. The IODE Committee should also emphasize the need to open up restricted data.

The IODE Committee should recognize Citizen Science projects, that educates and engages residents of all ages in measuring local environmental conditions, to be considered a valuable contribution to marine monitoring and scientific programs.

All Member States in IODE must be encouraged to make an impact working actively with Ocean Literacy, not only to raise global awareness, but also to elevate global acceptance for “The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want” (the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development), Agenda 2030 and SDG (Sustainable Development Goals).

The draft of the revised IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy constitutes the future direction.

I would be very honoured to serve as IODE co-chair for the inter-sessional period 2023-2025.

Declaration of commitment: I declare with all responsibility my readiness to coordinate the work of the IODE for the next intersessional period.

Paula Sierra (Colombia)

Date of Birth: 17 October 1972

Languages: Spanish (native), English

Current Position:

• Head of Research and Information at Marine and Coastal Research Institute –INVEMAR

Other Positions:

• Coordinator at INVEMAR of the Regional Training Center for Spanish Speakers Community of the Ocean Teacher Global Academy (OTGA) Strategy of IOC-IODE-UNESCO (starting 2014)
• Secretary ad hoc of the Board of the Directors at INVEMAR (starting 2012)
• Scientific Committee of indexed journal Boletin de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras
• Focal Point at INVEMAR to International Partnership for Blue Carbon –IPBC and Global Mangrove Alliance (GMA) (starting 2021)
• Member of Editorial Board Global Ocean Science Report (2018 – 2020)

Education: PhD Marine Science 2017, MSc on Geo-Informatics Science and Earth Observation at ITC – Twente University, The Netherlands 2000, Marine Biologist at Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano 1996.

Professional Experience

Since 1996 works at Marine and Coastal Research Institute - INVEMAR. 25 years’ expertise in coastal planning and policy options, climate change issues related to coastal-marine topics (impacts, vulnerability, adaptation and blue carbon). Between 1997 – 2000 Part of the team that elaborated the environmental coastal zone policy in Colombia.  Since 2009 until now, important career in activities related to the information and data Projects into the Flanders UNESCO Trust Fund (FUST) IOC-Unesco, such as: 1) Part of Colombian Technical Focal Point for SPINCAM Project “Red de Información del Pacífico Sur en apoyo a la Gestión Integrada de Áreas Costeras (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Panamá y Perú)”; 2) active research participation at the Caribbean Marine Atlas (CMA) linked with CLME+ as an Atlas option for follow the state of marine environment at the Caribbean Region and south-south cooperation with Africa (ACMA Atlas); 3) Member of Editorial Board for the Global Ocean Science Report II lead by IOC/UNESCO; as well as, part of the Clearing House Mechanism for Latin-American and Caribbean Region presented in the IOC Assembly in 2019, and now she lead the team that is working on the Ocean Info Hub node for the same Region. 2011 – 2017 Director of GEF project “Design and Implementation of Marine Protected Areas Subsystem in Colombia”. 2017 – 2022 Leader of European Union Action on mangroves, seagrasses and local communities at the Caribbean (MAPCO initials in Spanish). Since 2022 Director of GEF Project “Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Cienaga Grande de Santa Marta, Colombia”. Part of the official Country Delegations to the United Nations Conference on Oceans, the Conference of the Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Marine and Coastal Wetland and the Climate Change Convention. Coordinate and execute more than 30 research projects (at least 5 international projects in Latin America). Author of more than 30 scientific publications. Technical and administrative leader of research team with at least 40 people.

Personal perspective on the future of IODE:

Post-Covid era represent a challenge in the management of data and new skills are required in our scientists as well as other profiles in technical and technological. It represents opportunities for the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) role: One is to stay at the forefront to data collection technologies, information systems (Spatial and alphanumeric data inclusive) and complex multiscale, multitemporal and tridimensional analyses of ocean research. Other is that the actionable insights are the support a successful transparency ocean goal, however data matters, but actions are the queen. On the other hand, the biggest challenge on ocean sustainability are facing now is the unavailability of quality data and their metadata; without those and the information systems connected from inside and outside the member states of IOC-Unesco, opportune decision making can’t materialize. This is the setting for IODE to flourish in the coming years. The IODE's global and regional presence should be promoted. Detailed action plan into the ocean transparency goal encourage the use of data and information analytics into the Decade of the Oceans 2021-2030 linked to the objectives of sustainable development-SDG (especially SDG14). IODE can play an important role in the regional seas strategies, and data and information management link with global conventions (such as Biodiversity-CBD, UNFCCC) as well as Ramsar wetlands convention among others. IODE should be focusing on the mechanisms of exchange of information and data, through interoperable platforms, with high usability and versatility, with automatized processes that allow connection between different sources of information. It will contribute not only to the modernization of IODE and its main instruments (ODIS-OIH, OBIS, OceanDocs, OceanExpert, OceanTeacher), but also IOC/UNESCO in general, with its entry into cutting-edge technologies such as what is known today as "Big Data” o “Data Science”. Another challenge is to train researchers in the use of new technologies to take advantage of the benefits they offer for the collection of direct and indirect data, as well as to visualize and present the data in the appropriate way for different audiences, especially to attract the attention of other researchers, decision-makers and potential donors. We need data to be simple enough for those who require simple information, but have the scientific rigor demanded by researchers. Historically, we have been a “data collectors”, but we are need to move on better documentation, store, accessibility, and usability of data and its metadata. This is something that can be taught and learned. IODE should be focus on contribute to the fulfillment of this challenge. Especially from OTGA reinforcement and strengthens at regional level and generation of regional state of marine and coastal reports based on indicators. IODE also plays an important role increasing visibility and public awareness, constantly teaching about the role of the oceans through making public and easy access to marine data and information. The link of the IODE with the other strategies and projects within the IOC (such as Blue Carbon, Marine Spatial Planning, GOOS, Tsunami, HABA, among others) will make it possible to identify demands for information. IODE not only offer training but also support with keep-safe data. This offer can be projected to other sectors, contributing from the marine information with the development of the world economy, the prevention and preparation before climatic phenomena, the mitigation and adaptation to climate change, among others. These links will also allow the mobilization of economic funds in cash or in kind, to strengthen the global, regional and national actions of IODE-IOC-UNESCO. Funding is a big challenge, as we know conducting science in the oceans involves very specific conditions. In the case of data collection, the costs of research are much higher, and highly-specialized personnel are required to obtain and process quality information. However, if each of the ocean project includes the small item to metadating, and to put the data and metadata into the global information system, the difference will be arriving. OID/IODE can advise the ocean projects that are selected on the Ocean Decade Actions teaching about data management and visualizing by OIH. Also, IODE can promote the strategy with private and public sector alliance in order to work with data in simply way for their decision-making process; may be they in return make small donations for the custody of the data and maintenance of the systems as social responsibility not only for transparent and accessible oceans, but also for health and resilience of them. 

Declaration of commitment: I declare with all responsibility my readiness to coordinate the work of the IODE for the next intersessional period

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Created on: Thursday, 05 January 2023 12:18

Last Updated on: Tuesday, 10 January 2023 20:06