The 24th Session of the IODE Committee will be held between in Kuala Lumpur, 27-31 March 2017, kindly hosted by the Government of Malaysia. A formal IOC Circular Letter will be sent out soon together with a first version of the provisional agenda. The main Session will be held between 28-31 March with a 1-day Scientific Conference to be held on 27 March. More information and documentation will be made available through the web page http://www.iode.org/iode24 when it becomes available. Project coordinators/managers will be requested to provide progress reports on their projects for the past inter-sessional period as well as a proposed work plan and budget for the next inter-sessional period.
the 5th Session of the JCOMM/IODE Expert Team on Data Management Practives (ETDMP-V) was held at the IOC project Office for IODE in Oostende, Belgium between 22-24 June 2016. The meeting reviewed progress since the previous session held in 2014, in particular the work of the Task Team on the Ocean Data Standards project Task for the IODE Ocean Data Portal and Task team for Metadata. The Session further adopted a work plan for the next inter-sessional period. REPORT HERE
The lists of IODE national coordinators (for data management and for marine information management) have been updated. Those who did not reply to our direct emails that were sent as from 13 June 2016 have been removed from the lists. There are now 63 IODE national coordinators for data management (down from 78) and 31 IODE national coordinators for marine information management (down from 45). For all those who were removed as well as to other IOC member states who have not designated IODE national coordinators an official letter will be sent to IOC contact points asking them to designate IODE national coordinators.
Today the IODE Secretariat sent out an email to all IODE national coordinators for data management and for marine information management as well as ADU contact points This exercise is carried out every two years in order to ensure contact information is kept up-to-date. Contacted experts are invited to inform the Secretariat whether they are still IODE national coordinator. Deadline for response is 1 July 2016. Those who have not responded will unfortunately need to be removed. Later in 2016 an IOC Circular Letter will be sent to all IOC Member States who currently do not have IODE national coordinators to designate them as soon as possible so the Secretariat can effectively communicate with all IOC member states in matters related to ocean data and information management.
Today the IODE Secretariat opened an online survey to obtain information on the status of ocean data and information capacity and services among its global community of NODCs, ADUs and IODE national coordinators. The information will be used for the first edition of the Global Ocean Science Report (GOSR). It will assist local and national governments, academic and research institutions, as well as international organizations and donors, in making informed decisions, e.g. on future research investment. In brief, the GOSR will inform of where the science capacity exists to address present marine environmental challenges. The overall content of the report will be partly quantitative and qualitative in nature. It is proposed that for the first iteration of the Global Ocean Science Report, it should be structured around a number of thematic chapters, which will summarize information about the status of ocean research, investment in research infrastructure and human capacity, as well as potential gaps in marine sciences programmes in need of further investments. It is envisaged to provide an overview on nations’ (i) investments, (ii) resources, and (iii) scientific productivity in Ocean Science. It can be understood as a tool for mapping and evaluating the human and institutional capacity of IOC Member States in terms of marine research, observations and data/information management, as well as a global overview of the main fields of research interest, technological developments, capacity building needs and overall trends. See more HERE.
But the information collected through the survey will also be useful as a snapshot of the "state of the IODE network". Results of the survey will be available as from September 2016 through the IODE web site.
This 12 minute documentary shows Kenya's commitment to the 2nd International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2, 2015-2020). It explains the importance of the Ocean to all life on Earth. It also shows the close partnership between the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and Kenya Marine and Fishereies Research Institute (KMFRI) who jointly organized a workshop onboard the RV Mtafiti between 18-28 April 2016 as contribution to the IIOE2 and to prepare scientists from the Western Indian Ocean (from Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, and India) for IIOE2.The workshop/cruise was funded by the VLIR-UOS (Flemish Interuniversity Council for Development Cooperation ) while the video was sponsored by IOC/IODE through funding provided by the Government of Flanders.
