CODATA Activities and Plans Simon Hodson Executive Director CODATA 9th Meeting of the Board on Research Data and Information Tuesday 24 September 2013

What is CODATA?  Mission: To strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting improved scientific and technical data management and use.  An Interdisciplinary Body of ICSU, the International Council for Science:  CODATA has been working at the forefront of data science since  Not-for-profit, membership organisation (national members, scientific unions, affiliate members, members-at-large).  Genuinely global: 23 national members.  Strong links with international scientific unions: 16 union members. CODATA is…  An international community and network of expertise on data issues.  An influential and authoritative voice in national and international policy regarding scientific data management.  A focal point for international, cross- disciplinary collaboration and communication on key scientific data issues.

CODATA Activities 1.Policy frameworks for data: take the lead in defining a policy agenda for scientific data. Establishing high level and expert Data Policy Committee. Provide authority and support for data policy issues: international, national, research initiatives. Contributing to ICSU consultation workshop on OA for publications, data and on the use of metrics for the appraisal of scientific contributions. 2.Frontiers in data science and technology: coordinate work in key frontiers of data science and interdisciplinary application areas. CODATA workshop series on Frontiers of Data Science and Technology: looking to partner other organisations and build on work of task groups. Capacity building activities: curriculum for data science, global outreach activities. International Science Data Conference, with WDS, New Delhi 2-5 Nov Reinvigorate the Data Science Journal. Task Groups and Working Groups (e.g. Young Data Scientists). 3.Data strategies for international science: support major ICSU scientific programmes to address data management needs (including infrastructure, policies, processes, standards). Future Earth; Integrated Research on Disaster Risk

CODATA Data Policy Committee  Core membership: Mark Thorley (chair), Paul Uhlir, Tyng-Ruey Chuang, Usha Munshi.  Expand to international experts.  Propose call for members and selection process involving CODATA EC.  Propose CODATA DPC to proposed data principles for Future Earth initiative.  Discussed with Mark Thorley that CODATA DPC should prepare model data policies and engage in a process of validation and iteration with National CODATA Committees (and academies, funders, transnational bodies …), with International Scientific Unions (and Learned Societies, publishers, journal editorial boards ….).  Involves CODATA in expert agenda setting activity.  Engages DPC with National Committees and IUs: opportunity for an informed dialogue around national and disciplinary concerns WRT data policies.  Addresses ICSU initiatives: Future Earth, ‘Report on Open Access and metrics for evaluation’

CODATA National Committees  Keen to understand and promote activities of CODATA National Committees.  Opportunity for National Committees to take leading role in addressing data issues – relationships with funders, with National Academies, learned societies.  What issues and debates are being raised at national levels? To what extent can various stakeholders be involved (funders, research organisations, data experts, data centres, research libraries etc)?  Can we build dialogue and exchanges between national committees?  If CODATA rests on national membership, then National Committees must have a prominent role and must benefit from international exchange.  National Data Coordinating Committees (IPY had National Data Coordinators…)?  In the UK the time is ripe for a data forum to build dialogue between funder driven policy, data experts and the demands of particular research disciplines.

Frontiers of Data Science 2.Frontiers in data science and technology: coordinate work in key frontiers of data science and interdisciplinary application areas; capacity building activities. CODATA workshop series on Frontiers of Data Science and Technology: Identify and address key data issues (workshops, white papers, put together larger initiatives). Where do you want to see exploratory work done? Opportunity to partner other organisations… Build on work of Task Groups, engage with International Unions Identify and support addressing of data issues in coordination with International Unions. Current activities: nanotechnology, data for sustainable development. Possible areas: contextual metadata, data policy/standards/repository ‘interoperability’, Expand CODATA’s capacity building activities, education and training activities including curriculum development. Early Career Data Scientists (funding allocated, programme needs to be designed).

CODATA Task Groups TGs are approved for two-years by the CODATA General Assembly; seed funding provided; benefit from community endorsement, linkages. Task Groups to contribute more directly to realisation of strategic plan: contribute to programme of workshops, white papers, reports on Data Frontiers. Current TGs 1.Advancing Informatics for Microbiology 2.Anthropometric Data and Engineering 3.Data Citation Standards and Practices 4.Data at Risk 5.Earth and Space Science Data Interoperability 6.Exchangeable Materials Data Representation to support Scientific Research and Education 7.Fundamental Physical Constants: 2010 CODATA constants 8.Global Information Commons for Science Initiative 9.Global Roads Data Development 10.Linked Open Data for Global Disaster Risk Research 11.OCTOPUS: Mining Space and Terrestrial Data for Improved Weather, Climate and Agricultural Predictions 12.Preservation of and Access to Scientific and Technical Data in/for/with Developing Countries

Data for Future Earth  Lessons from IPY (Mark Parsons in Nature Article on Data Sharing, 2009, doi: /461160a df df  Particular challenge in interdisciplinary projects.  Disparate data sharing cultures in research disciplines: some disciplines have established cultures of data sharing; others not.  Some disciplines have established data infrastructures others not.  Dependency on funding streams can lead to orphan data.  How readily can established data centres expand to cover other areas in interdisciplinary projects? Need for data archives that can deal with diverse data types.  Despite good intentions a lack of follow through and integration: essential to involve data scientists directly in the science at all levels early in the process and throughout. This means funding data science as part of the scientific effort.  As a result of ‘ “naive assumptions”, [a] lack of planning and other unanticipated obstacles, properly managing the IPY data will require another decade of work.’

Proposals for Future Earth  CODATA and WDS seeking to work closely with Future Earth and support the data agenda in Future Earth.  Joint CODATA-WDS SciDataCon to give prominence to Future Earth related themes.  Agreement to nominate some from the FE SC as data champion.  Agreement that data experts need to be directly involved with projects.  Resistance from Future Earth team to overarching data policy…  CODATA and WDS to work on brief data principles text for MoU between projects and Future Earth.  CODATA and WDS to have ongoing dialogue with Future Earth…

Thank for your attention! Simon Hodson Executive Director CODATA Tel (Office): | Tel (Cell): CODATA (ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology), 5 rue Auguste Vacquerie, Paris, FRANCE