Thematic Pilot Interview: Marine and Coastal Science
Read the Interview with the Thematic Pilot for Marine and Coastal Sciences to discover the latest updates on OSTrails pilot studies. Explore pilots progress in integrating open science principles and advancing research assessment. This month we had the pleasure of speaking with Oana Dragomir, Miguel Charcos Llorens and Nikolaos Zarokanellos, of SOCIB.
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- Oana Dragomir | - Miguel Charcos Llorens | - Nikolaos Zarokanellos |
"Through the OSTrails pilot, SOCIB is enhancing the way we manage, track, and share our marine data by implementing tools that increase visibility, reusability, and interoperability of our research assets. This strengthens our role as a trusted provider of high-quality, open marine data and helps ensure our work supports scientific collaboration and innovation in marine research."
-Can you briefly introduce your organisation? How does it contribute to EOSC?
The Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System (SOCIB, its acronym in Spanish) is a Spanish Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructure dedicated to sustained ocean observations and forecasting services in the western Mediterranean. It operates a multi-platform system that collects high-quality oceanographic and meteorological data, providing open access through its certified data repository accredited by CoreTrustSeal. SOCIB is also recognised as an Associate Data Unit under the UNESCO International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange organization (IODE ADU), a designation aligned with CoreTrustSeal that acknowledges its role in the global ocean data system and its adherence to the internationally accepted FAIR data management practices . SOCIB is a partner in Blue-Cloud 2026, a project that aims to lay the foundation for a sustained marine data infrastructure that will contribute to EOSC node for EOSC as a thematic node for the marine and earth sciences. Blue-Cloud is pursuing this goal by federating leading European marine data infrastructures and EOSC-core services into a common ecosystem, developing FAIR-compliant Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and promoting open science practices to support research, policy and the blue economy. Furthermore, SOCIB aims to align with EOSC principles of ensuring open, FAIR-compliant data, advancing marine science and innovation, supporting interdisciplinary collaboration, and promoting ocean literacy.
-What are you most excited about in OSTrails? What are you looking forward to?
We are especially excited about adopting the Scientific Knowledge Graph Interoperability Framework (SKG IF) to map our institutional research assets in a structured, machine-readable graph. This will significantly enhance visibility and interoperability with other SKGs, for example with those provided by OpenAIRE and FAIRsharing, which can help us track publications and enhance alignment with community standards and FAIR practices. Combining this graph with tools for monitoring and assessing data processes will facilitate deeper integration with EOSC and support the development of Digital Twins of the Ocean. Ultimately, this pilot marks a significant milestone for SOCIB’s evolution toward becoming a long-term, open-access marine data platform for the Mediterranean, offering advanced data management, interoperability with other disciplines, and technical services to serve the marine community needs.
-How is planning, tracking and assessing research being realised in your scientific domain?
Planning
In marine science, research planning typically follows well-defined workflows and established best practices, with responsibilities and resources clearly allocated. We are increasingly benefiting from automation tools and the use of Data Management Plans (DMPs). One of our next goals is to evolve our current static Glider DMP template into a dynamic, machine-actionable DMP (maDMP), building on the RDA DMP Common Standard, which forms an integral part of the OSTrails DMP Interoperability Framework.
Tracking
Tracking is essential for monitoring the dissemination, reuse, and impact of research outputs. It enhances transparency and accountability, ensuring public institutions meet performance goals and secure sustained funding. The Scientific Knowledge Graph (SKG) will be instrumental in tracing digital objects (DOs) related to the data flow—especially datasets—across external portals, scholarly publications, and associated software and instruments. We are building on the JERICO-SKG implementing the OSTrails SKG-IF requirements and developing the SOCIB SKG as a demonstration for tracking ocean glider data and associated assets. We aim to deploy the SOCIB SKG in the virtual environment of Blue-Cloud and make it available for the marine community.
Assessing
Current assessment practices are primarily focused on institutional reporting requirements, which are only partially automated and offer limited coverage of the data lifecycle. We are working to expand this by incorporating metrics related to data creation, usage, and accessibility. A key objective is to implement FAIR assessments for datasets. While the specific FAIR tests are still to be selected, their integration and evaluation outputs will be central to ensuring data quality and compliance with Open Science principles. Additionally, we are strengthening operational monitoring—checking, for instance, whether glider systems are functioning correctly—and will build this functionality alongside the SKG infrastructure.
-Can you provide some details on your pilot's main actors, services and priorities? How will your pilot adopt the results of OSTrails?
We are honoured to lead this thematic pilot on behalf of the ENVRI community, building on the foundation laid by the JERICO project, which endorsed our participation in OSTrails. SOCIB plays a key role in this effort, contributing high resolution coastal ocean data to JERICO—particularly from our glider platforms, while serving as a testbed for new software tools and workflow innovations. Our main objective is to establish and operationalise the SOCIB SKG, a system designed to support the full glider data lifecycle in alignment with FAIR principles.
We have three main priorities:
- First, we are working to align SOCIB and JERICO-SKG with the OSTrails SKG-IF, adopting the common data model and exchange protocols to ensure seamless data flow across systems.
- Second, we aim to strengthen FAIR compliance by implementing the OSTrails Assessment-IF and evaluating the FAIRness of digital objects (DOs).
- Third, we will implement operational assessments to support our research data management.
We will directly adopt OSTrails results by embedding FAIR assessments into our workflows and integrating our research assets into the OSTrails SKG framework. These enhancements will first be tested at SOCIB and then scaled through Blue-Cloud to benefit the wider JERICO and ENVRI communities.
-Ongoing activities and Next Steps?
We are developing a data management and monitoring platform designed to increase automation across the glider data workflow and support comprehensive reporting. In parallel, we are adopting the SKG data model and creating agents to query external repositories effectively. Once the pilot is officially underway, our focus will shift to completing the implementation of the SKG and Assessment-IF requirements.
Thematic Pilots, Pilot Interview, SOCIB, Marine & Coastal Sciences
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