DAG activities

The 44th DAG meeting was a short meeting and focused on key updates from the UKEOF Secretariat and discussions on UNESCO’s open data principles, highlighting ongoing efforts and future plans. There were eight attendees to the meeting.

UNESCO consultation: Richard Ostler informed the group about UNESCO’s global consultation on principles for open science data monitoring. This consultation seeks feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including funders, national institutions, research agencies, and universities, to define high-level principles for monitoring and reporting open science data. It was decided that the DAG will lead a response fom the UKEOF and send that back to UNESCO prior to their deadline.

Citizen Science involvement: The Environment Agency, heavily involved in citizen science, will flag this consultation in the Citizen Science Working Group. Discussions also covered the importance of open educational resources, incorporating FAIR data principles, and ensuring data access for those without computers.

UKEOF Catalogue: Steve presented the current situation with the catalogue. It was decided to list current records by organisation and seek a simple 'yes/no' for inclusion in the new catalogue. A second phase will involve updating and tidying records. This work will start with UKCEH records at the end of November.

FAIR data and reporting: It was emphasised that FAIR data is just the beginning. Effective reporting and a marketing strategy are crucial for connecting with other organisations and ensuring interoperability between catalogues.

The 44th DAG meeting highlighted ongoing efforts to enhance the UKEOF Catalogue and foster collaboration among members. The proposed actions and themes will be further developed in upcoming meetings and initiatives, ensuring continued momentum and impact.

The 43rd DAG meeting focused on advancing key projects and addressing important questions related to environmental observation and data management.

Following an update on the Secretariat, our guest speaker, Rorie Edmunds from DataCite, spoke on International Generic Sample Numbers (IGSNs), highlighting their role as persistent identifiers for various sample types across multiple disciplines. Key points included:

• Applications: IGSNs can be assigned to individual samples, aggregated samples, features of interest, and even destroyed or ephemeral samples
• Cross-linking and Citation: IGSNs facilitate the description of relationships between samples and other entities, enhancing discovery and credit
• Support for sample workflows: IGSNs can be integrated at any stage of the workflow, with early assignment being most effective
• Real-world example: A geochemical field campaign demonstrated the efficiency of using IGSNs with FAIMS and QR code labels for immediate data capture and backup
• Registration process: IGSNs are registered similarly to DOIs and are recognised at the repository level by DataCite 5.0
• Discussion points: The relationship between IGSNs and other repositories like EU Bioinformatics Biosamples, and the potential integration of measuring instruments with IGSNs.

Steve Turner also presented on the UKEOF Catalogue's status, emphasising the usefulness of the four categories (Programmes, Networks, Activities, and Facilities). Definitions and examples will be provided to ensure clarity when adding data. Existing records will be added to the new Catalogue as 'private', with organisation representatives reviewing them before making them public. Prioritisation will be based on start and end dates.

Consideration of the UKEOF Catalogue's interoperability with others, such as the NCEA catalogue is important, and will help the ongoing legacy of the Catalogue. Once it is published, a webinar will be organised to communicate the Catalogue's purpose and usage.

The 42nd meeting of the DAG focused on several key areas and highlighted ongoing projects, identified challenges, and proposed future actions to enhance the utility of the DAG. There were nine attendees at the meeting.

Steve Turner updated the group on the UKEOF Catalogue redevelopment and the UKEOF Conference. The Catalogue is seen as important output for UKEOF, but more importantly of a great use to the monitoring and observations community, so we hope this redevelopment helps people.

There was a discussion on some future topics that could be covered by the DAG:

• Persistent Identifiers (IGSNs): Emphasis on the importance of persistent identifiers for physical samples
• Digital Twins: Addressing challenges in data availability and model accessibility
• Data problems: Exploring how to associate data in complex systems and addressing API issues
• NCEA: Building systems that integrate models and datasets, using citizen science data while managing bias and uncertainty
• Impact reporting: Developing methods to provide evidence of impact
• Catalogue updates: Ensuring the Catalogue is populated and updated regularly
• Data confidentiality: Balancing anonymity with data analysis needs, especially in citizen science.

The 41st DAG meeting underscored the importance of ongoing projects and identified key areas for future focus. By addressing the challenges and leveraging collaborative efforts, the DAG aims to drive progress in environmental observation and data management across public sector organisations. The proposed actions will be pursued in subsequent meetings and through targeted initiatives, ensuring sustained momentum and impact.
 

Each year, the UKEOF holds a conference for the environmental observation community. Previously we have addressed how to adapt environmental monitoring to meet evidence needs (2020) and the use of environmental monitoring for natural capital reporting (2022). For our fourth conference we will be turning our attention to the role of Artificial intelligence (AI) technology in environmental observations. The event will be held online in March 2024.

You can read more about the 2024 UKEOF conference here. To receive announcements about the conference, why not sign up to the UKEOF mailing list?

At its recent meeting in October, the Data Advisory Group (DAG) worked on the agenda. It was agreed that themes will include how AI can help us collect, quality control and report on environmental observations, how it can influence the role of digital twins, and ethics, bias and limitations that might be associated with this fast-moving technology.

We were very sorry to learn that our DAG co-chair, Sophia Ratcliffe, has stepped down. We would like to thank Sophia for all her work on the DAG over the years, particularly for spearheading the work on re-developing our observations catalogue, and we wish her the very best for the future.

We are now looking for a new co-chair to join Richard Ostler (Rothamsted). If you are interested don’t be shy! Also, if you would like to join or find out more about the UKEOF Data Advisory Group, please get in touch at office@ukeof.org.uk.