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Work Packages

Published 30.04.2016 - Updated 30.04.2016

WP1 Project coordination and management

Lead partner: IMR
WP leader: Helge Sagen

The purpose of WP1 is coordination and management of the NMDC project, working in close collaboration with the other partners. Develop appropriate management activities to administer the short and long term development of NMDC, including the day to day management of the project, in addition to monitoring of costs and resources and other financial and legal activities.
The Coordinator (IMR) follows the activities of the consortium in collaboration with the work package leaders, setting up deadline for each activity and ensuring that all partners are fulfilling their project duties and that task time tables and deliverables are met in due time. The coordinator is responsible for organizing and prepare annual reports (progress and financial) for the Research Council of Norway. 

Participating partners: all
Close interaction, collaboration and communication with all work packages and partners are required. This work package will also interact closely with WP8 on dissemination and outreach activities.


WP2 System design
Lead partner: METNO
WP leader: Øystein Godøy

The objective is to describe the required functionality, translate this to an overall design and to provide guidelines for services and interfaces to be implemented. The design process is iterative and requires interaction with several other work packages where the design criteria are tested and implemented. The feedback provided by these work packages will result in modifications of the design if necessary. NMDC is by nature a distributed data management system with a number of physically separated data centres that are united to a virtual data centre utilising interoperability protocols allowing users to access data wherever located physically. NMDC is primarily affecting interfaces to the contributing data centres, not the internal structure of the data centre. The system design has been developed and is now being implemented by other work packages. Further activities in WP 2 will be interaction with implementation work packages. 

Participating partners: IMR, NERSC, CMR, NP, NIVA


WP3 Data format and flow
Lead partner: NERSC
WP leader: Torill Hamre

The goal of WP3 is to define the formats that will be used in NMDC. Each partner must provide their datasets in one of the agreed formats. WP3 will also define the metadata structure and content for the descriptions accompanying each dataset. The metadata will be based on the definition in the pre-project, but extended (or simplified), if changes are found to be needed during this project.
Finally, WP3 will define how datasets will be imported into and exported from NMDC, i.e. the interfaces (protocols) used between the partners’ data nodes and NMDC server (internal protocols), and between the NMDC and the ‘outside world’ (external protocols).

Participating partners: IMR, METNO, NGU, NIVA, NP, UiB, UiO, NINA, CMR


WP4 Data storage and implementation

Lead partner: NP
WP leader: Stein Tronstad

WP 4 will establish storage systems and data access interfaces for all types of NMDC data. Being a distributed system, NMDC will rely on data storage facilities at the participating institutions. NMDC will coordinate the development work, and provide the infrastructure for a common, unified gateway to all distributed data.

Initially WP 4 developed two key supporting documents for the infrastructure development, a joint implementation plan and a common set of specifications that participating data centres must adhere to.

The first element to be implemented was a common data directory, consisting of a metadata system comprising local metadatabases; services and interfaces for metadata exchange, and a central, searchable data catalog. The metadata system is based on the protocols OAI PMH (prioritised) and OGC CSW. All metadata must comply with the ISO 19115 and DIF standards, with XML as the exchange format. The data centres participating in NMDC must establish and operate their own metadatabases in compliance with the NMDC specifications, while NMDC will implement the metadata exchange infrastructure and a search interface for end users.

The next phase will be the implementation of a data distribution and exchange infrastructure, based on a central node at NMDC and distributed data storage facilities. The central node will include functionality to aggregate and transform data from the distributed data sources, and expose the data products to users through a RESTful API. Initially data formats such as NetCDF / CF, ESRI shapefiles and Darwin Core Archive will be served. The NMDC data providers will expose their data in several ways, including OPeNDAP, HTTP / JSON, OGC WFS / WCS and FTP. Data integrity, version control, access control and IPR management constitute important considerations during the implementation.

In addition to the data delivery infrastructure, Finally, NMDC will work to connect its data exchange systems to international data sharing infrastructures such as SeaDataNet, Inspire, GEOSS, WIS, GCMD and others. In later phases NMDC will also implement more advanced solutions for extraction, transformation and visualization of data across multiple sources.

Participating partners: IMR, METNO, NIVA


WP5 Project coordination and management
Lead partner: IMR
WP leader: Arnfinn Morvik

The purpose of the WP 5 is to develop tools which can be used to detect, compare and merge data from all marine data set's in NMDC. The user must have access to data in a user-friendly format.
WP5 will develop the user interface for NMDC. This should meet the functional and design requirements specified in WPs 2, 3 and 4. The user interface will be developed as a web application and therefore act as a web portal to all data sets in NMDC.
The implementation has started and it is possible to search the data sets based on institution, parameters, geographic location, time interval and text searches. The search is based on that if no criteria are selected all data sets will meet the search criteria. The user can narrow the search by selecting one or more search criteria. The datasets that meet the search criteria will be presented in a list in the web portal. If additional information is available, this will be shown as well. From the list, the user will have the opportunity to download the corresponding dataset. The web portal communicates with the underlying infrastructure through an API developed by HI.

Participating partners: CMR, NP, NERSC, NGU, NINA, UiB, UiO, UNI, UiT

WP6 Applications
Lead partner: CMR
WP leader: Armin Pobitzer

In order to leveraging the use of the NMDC infrastructure further, this work package is concerned with providing applications on top of the publicly available NMDC API. These are applications are either developed within the scope of NMDC, or updates to already existing applications.
The first application developed in this work package is a map-based metadata explorer. This application is a server/client solution that allows the user to inquire visually the data sets available in NMDC. The client is currently available as browser-version and Android app.
Furthermore, the development of a web-GIS client that allows the aggregation of raw data in time and space is planned. Besides these two newly developed applications, several work package partner will adapt already existing applications to retrieve data directly through NMDC. These applications comprise a WMS-client for display of transects, a WMS-client for the display of marine ecosystems, and a decision aid tool for planning of naval sonar exercises.
The applications are usually developed by one partner institution. The other partners in the work package serve as user group and provide testing and feedback.
Besides an increased utilisation of the infrastructure and the contained data, these applications are also meant as examples of how to build own third-party applications that integrate, enhance and visualise data provided through NMDC. The work package will provide documented source code to facilitate independent development of third-party applications. If possible, the whole source code will be made available under free software licenses.

Participating partners: IMR, FFI, METNO, NERSC, NINA, UiB, UiO, NIVA, Akvaplan-NIVA, UNI

WP7: Data availability
Lead partner: IMR
WP leader: Ann Kristin Østrem

The purpose of WP 7 is to identify and make available marine datasets and metadata in the infrastructure developed during the project. Non-digitized historical data will have a special focus. A helpdesk has been set up at IMR to help users with simple requests or delegate to expert groups. 

Daily harvesting of metadata has been set up for some of the partners. The others register metadata in the database developed at IMR for the pre-project, and this is also harvested daily.

All partners have made available at least one dataset in the new infrastructure. New datasets are added as the data becomes ready. A list of datasets to be made available from each partner has been prepared, containing information on data type, expected delivery date, data format and delivery method. WP3 decides which formats the data can be delivered in, WP7 is responsible for making the data available within the delivery dates in the list.

Participating partners: METNO, NERSC, NP, UiT, UiN, UiB, UiO, NIVA, Akvaplan-niva, NINA, FFI, NGU, Artsdatabanken, UNI Research, IMR

WP8 Dissemination and Sustainability
Lead partner: NIVA
WP leader: John Rune Selvik

The main purpose of WP8 is to organize users workshop for hands on training, prepare overview of presentations/publications related to NMDC, prepare annual newsletter for internal and external use and prepare a plan for the sustainable use of NMDC after the project period. 
NMDC will actively promote and train users in utilization of the national marine data infrastructure. User workshops will be organized in order to stimulate and improve its use. One will utilize conferences and meeting places in ongoing activities for promoting NMDC and contribute to the sustainability of NMDC, using available experience in national and international research forums. NMDC is developed as a national infrastructure for continued use after the project period. A plan for sustainable use will be developed. Achieved result will be presented in an annual newsletter and partners may use this newsletter in their own marketing activities. 

Participating partners: IMR, CMR, METNO, NERSC, NP, UiB