How can research projects maximise the long-term value of their data?
Every research project generates valuable data. But what happens to those data once the project ends?
Too often, important datasets become difficult to find, difficult to access, or disconnected from the wider systems designed to support scientific collaboration and knowledge sharing. When this happens, opportunities for future research, innovation and evidence-based decision-making can be lost.
Good data management is about much more than storing files. It is about ensuring that data remain discoverable, accessible and useful long after the project that generated them has finished.
This is the focus of the second set of resources released by MARCO-BOLO within its Knowledge Transfer Series: Maximising Digital Legacy in Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Projects.
From data collection to data readiness
Marine biodiversity monitoring relies on data collected across different locations, habitats, timescales and observation methods. Bringing these datasets together requires common standards, clear documentation and careful planning from the start of a project.
Throughout MARCO-BOLO, partners have worked to improve how biodiversity data are organised, managed and shared. The project’s Data Management Plan laid the foundations for this work, helping ensure that project data could be integrated into wider European and international biodiversity information systems. The new resources build on these experiences and translate them into practical guidance that can support future projects.
Making data management more practical
Most research teams understand the importance of managing and sharing data effectively. However, implementing good practices can be challenging in projects involving multiple organisations, different data types and a wide range of technical requirements.
To help address these challenges, MARCO-BOLO developed two complementary resources focused on data readiness.
Central to these resources is the concept of Data Readiness Levels (DRLs), a stepwise approach designed to help projects assess and improve how their data are managed, shared and preserved. By encouraging the implementation of FAIR data principles and good data management practices throughout a project’s lifecycle, the DRLs aim to help ensure that valuable biodiversity data remain discoverable, accessible and reusable long after a project has concluded.
- The first is a practical DRL self-assessment checklist that helps projects evaluate whether the key elements needed for effective data management, sharing and long-term preservation are in place.
- The second is a supporting presentation resource that introduces the main concepts and recommendations in a format that can easily be shared with project teams, coordinators and stakeholders.
Together, these resources encourage projects to think beyond compliance requirements and consider how their data can remain useful, reusable and accessible long after a project has ended. They cover key considerations throughout the project lifecycle, from planning and data collection to publication, sharing and long-term preservation.
Why does this matter?
Marine biodiversity challenges do not stop when individual projects end. Long-term monitoring, ecosystem assessments and biodiversity policies all depend on data that can be reused across projects, countries and years. By improving data readiness, projects can maximise the value of their work, support future research and help build a stronger and more connected marine biodiversity knowledge base.
Building a lasting data legacy
The long-term impact of a project is not measured only by the research it produces, but also by how accessible and useful its outputs remain over time. By encouraging better data management practices and promoting interoperability between systems, the MARCO-BOLO Data Readiness resources aim to support a future where biodiversity data can continue informing research, monitoring and decision-making long after individual projects have concluded.
Explore the resource
These resources have been developed for project coordinators, data managers, researchers and anyone involved in planning and delivering marine biodiversity monitoring activities.
Explore the checklist, supporting presentation and other MARCO-BOLO Knowledge Transfer resources here: https://marcobolo-project.eu/knowledge-transfer-series/