Marco-Bolo News

How MARCO-BOLO is advancing data literacy for biodiversity research and innovation!

The digital revolution has transformed our world, but the modern biodiversity researcher needs new capacities and training to ensure their (meta)data can be discovered and effectively (re)used for further research, policy development, and the broader public and private sector benefit. MARCO-BOLO’s Work Package (WP) 1 is taking steps to equip the project’s partners with the skills and understanding needed to ensure their data has an impact decades after the project ends.

A little background.

Data is a first-class research output: researchers still regularly use biodiversity data from decades or even centuries ago to investigate how ecosystems are changing and predict where they’re heading. Unfortunately, most researchers are not rewarded for creating and publishing high-quality (meta)data in long-term, publicly accessible archives. Institutions typically ignore such outputs in favour of peer-reviewed publications when hiring or promoting research personnel. As a result, researchers are not incentivised to allocate time and resources to data curation and publication using contemporary approaches. Thus, immense volumes of biodiversity data will never be discovered or reused and will lay buried in the supplementary material of journal articles or on a slowly demagnetising hard drive on a dusty shelf. 

Fortunately, the transformative agenda of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development – alongside other calls to reward and invest in high-quality data sharing – is reinvigorating the biodiversity data landscape. Early- and mid-career researchers are becoming increasingly aware that data handling is an essential skill, and are pursuing training to increase their digital literacy. The UN Ocean Decade’s Data and Information Strategy and its emerging implementation plan are guiding the hundreds of international Actions within its framework, bringing our ocean data commons into the future.

Data Literacy: The key to sustainable science, and science for sustainable development.

In the age of social media and cloud-based services, where our own personal data is shipped across borders, monetised, and traded, knowing how to understand and use data helps us make smarter choices. The same literacy is sorely needed in biodiversity science, where only a fraction of researchers have sufficient data literacy to understand the consequences of their digital decisions.

Data literacy is the ability to read, understand, create, and share data. This is more than understanding numbers – the formats, structure, serialisations, semantic markup, and other key properties of a dataset can have profound consequences for its future and impact. Being able to choose the right approaches to managing, analysing, documenting, and sharing (meta)data has never been more important. With enough literacy, a researcher can ensure their data will bring value (to science and society) for centuries to come.

How does all of this relate to MARCO-BOLO? 

Now, let’s explore how these concepts intersect with MARCO-BOLO’s innovative work, specifically in WP1. This WP is co-led by Pier Luigi Buttigieg from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and Dan Lear from the Marine Biological Association, with partners from VLIZ, UNESCO, ISMAR, Seascape Belgium, Lifewatch, CNR, GeoEcoMar and UIT. This team of digital experts are working with international and European biodiversity data hubs, the UN Ocean Decade coordination teams, the researchers across MARCO-BOLO’s WPs, and collaborators in other Horizon projects (including BiOcean5D, WorldFAIR, and EuropaBON) to enhance the flow and long-term viability of biodiversity (meta)data in the ocean’s digital ecosystem. In particular, WP1 is improving the flow of data from legacy and ongoing research into the Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) of the IOC-UNESCO Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) developed by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON).   

As a project that only lasts a few years, MARCO-BOLO can’t hold on to its (meta)data: it has to make sure that it archives them in trusted and capable long-term repositories

** “It’s mostly about creating the right flow,” explains Pier Luigi Buttigieg, WP1’s co-lead, “we aim to make sure that biodiversity experts in MARCO-BOLO know how to shape their data so that it can flow into the data streams that are building the ocean’s digital commons and power multilateral, cross-domain action for biodiversity. We have to prevent valuable data from ending up effectively lost, entombed, or inert, which is the fate of the majority of biodiversity research data today.” ** 

To get the flow right, WP1 is co-implementing the FAIR Principles and Tim Berners-Lee’s 5-star linked open data framework such that the project’s (meta)data flows into global systems like the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) and Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS), as well as regional marine data hubs like the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet). Once (meta)data is in these hubs, it takes on a new life, being reshaped and delivered to an ever-growing community of users, with no additional effort from the researcher’s side. Indeed, in the future, this data will be easier for MARCO-BOLO’s personnel to recover, likely in an enriched form and linked to other data yet to be imagined

** “The ability for standardised, well-described data to flow in a low-friction manner is critical to ensuring informed, data-driven decisions are made about our planet’s oceans and the activities that occur around them.” Dan Lear, WP1 co-lead stated. “Cross-border cooperation and collaboration is more critical than ever, and MARCO-BOLO’s approach to (meta)data will promote a framework that will live on beyond the lifespan of the project.” **

In conclusion, 21st-century data literacy plays a crucial role in linking MARCO-BOLO to the global digital revolution. By fostering a deeper understanding of data, decoupling it from any one repository or system, and utilising open standards, MARCO-BOLO is paving the way for a more unified and accessible horizon of biodiversity knowledge. This isn’t just about data; it’s about creating a foundation for informed decision-making, innovation, and a sustainable future for European marine, coastal, and freshwater biodiversity.