The UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE is a Certified Learning Services provider having satisfied the requirements of the International Standard: ISO 29993:2017 - Learning services outside formal education — Service requirements. This certification is in recognition of the learning opportunities offered by the Project Office and the high standard of quality learning services delivered.
ISO 29993:2017 is a standard that specifies a set of minimum requirements for learning services outside formal education and provides a model for high-quality, professional operations, as well as a common set of references for developing and delivering training. It focuses on the learner, including learning outcomes and evaluation of learning results, to demonstrate evidence of competence and quality.
The Project Office is committed to maintain and continuously improve its management system and to provide excellence in training services to support all IOC programmes.
For the first time in three years, the Steering Group for the Ocean Best Practices System met in-person as well as online, for their fourth annual meeting (SG-OBPS-IV) between the 30 Nov and 02 Dec 2022 at UNESCO in Paris. The days were very full and productive, including discussions about governance and strategic planning, as well as updates from Work Package leaders. Supporting the discussion on the OBPS Ocean Practices for the Decade Programme, the SG were treated to presentations about Decade Action opportunities from Alison Clausen (UN Ocean Decade Programme Specialist), and about the Ocean Predict Decade Programme and the Decade Collaborative Centre for Ocean Prediction from its Technical Coordinator, Enrique Alvarez.
The SG elected new Co-Chairs - George Petihakis and Rene Garello. Both bring extensive project and management experience and understanding of best practices on ocean observation, data and information and applications. They take over the Co-Chair lead from Johannes Karstensen and Jay Pearlman who have guided the growth of OBPS as an IOC project under the sponsorship of IODE and GOOS. Also elected, were new SG Members who bring a broad global heritage to OBPS work on propagating new practices.
One of the highlights of the meeting was a discussion about success stories related to the OBPS, which helped contribute to a general feeling of excitement that the OBPS is moving forward with an ideal combination of fresh perspectives and strong legacy knowledge.
On 5th December the INNOVOCEAN Campus was officially inaugurated. The IOC Project Office for IODE is very pleased to have their offices in this new building together with the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), the Institute for Agricultural, Fisheries and Food Research (ILVO), The European Marine Board, the EMODnet Secretary and the Secretariat of the Province of West- Flanders.
The Flemish Government invested in this 8000m2 building that houses: laboratories, a large public ‘Sea’ library, meeting rooms and office space for more than 200 employees.
The third meeting of the Steering Group for the OceanTeacher Global Academy (SG-OTGA) was held from 21-23 November. This hybrid meeting reviewed the activities of the 17 OTGA Regional and Specialized Training Centres. During 2022, a total of 29 online training courses were delivered by the global network with over 2200 applications received and more than 1300 learners enrolled in courses which were delivered in English, Spanish and Portuguese. In addition, 17 online training courses were hosted by the OTGA e-learning platform on behalf of partner organizations. The SG-OTGA prepared a work plan for the 2023-24 period and elected Mr Udaya Bhaskar (RTC India) and Mr Aidy Muslim (RTC Malaysia) as Co-chairs for the next intersessional period.
GOOS has officially announced the public launch of the BioEco portal! Follow this link to the announcement by GOOS.
The BioEco Portal is a freely available, open access platform that provides metadata and information on global ocean observing programmes that monitor Biological and Ecosystem (BioEco) Essential Ocean Variables (EOV’s).
The Portal is developed to be the go-to online resource for all the available information about where ocean observation is being done; what is the status and trends of ocean observation or specific programs; what are the standardisations and specifications being used; and of course, what organisms are being observed/ monitored. The aim of the portal is to aid in the coordination and collaboration of networks, programme managers and institutes to access and share information and metadata among global observing communities and allow the GOOS BioEco panel to build on its community of practice.
The UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE is a Certified Learning Services provider having satisfied the requirements of the International Standard: ISO 29993:2017 - Learning services outside formal education — Service requirements. This certification is in recognition of the learning opportunities offered by the Project Office and the high standard of quality learning services delivered.
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