Report of the Study Group on Management of Integrated (SGMID)

Abstract

The ICES Study Group on Management of Integrated Data met for the third and last time. The group convened at the ICES secretariat at the same time as the annual meeting of the Working Group on Marine Data Management (WGMDM), and half a day was devoted to a joint session on detailed planning of future needs for data groups in the ICES environment, and the organisation of the co-sponsored ASC theme session M on data integration. SGMID’s main task for this year was to review the implementation of the new ICES data policy. The new policy, drafted at SGMID’s last meeting, was developed further by a number of ICES expert groups and unanimously adopted by the ICES Council in October 2005. The data policy was published in March, and SGMID discussed extensively how to communicate the new approach to data sources and data users. The group also suggested to the ICES Data Centre which technical amendments would be required for a timely implementation. An extension of the ICES in-house databases to hold information on data sources and data quality flags (including “known issues” with historic data) was thought to be of special importance in this context. Another task was the review of the outcome of the ICES data user questionnaire from the ASC 2005. SGMID concluded that, while the group had reached its end-of-life as a study group, there would still be a need for such a user-oriented group dealing with strategic planning of ICES data issues. After discussion with WGMDM, the group made a number of suggestions on possible approaches. A final resolution requires a meeting between the chairs of the SGMID and WGMDM, the Consultative Committee Chair, and the ICES General Secretary.