Objectives
The specific objectives of the Geo-Seas project are:
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To expand the SeaDataNet infrastructure by including the network of national geological surveys and selected geological research institutes, and their marine geological and geophysical data holdings;
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To publish and maintain common catalogues of available data, data products and services, managed by national geological surveys and research institutes in Europe;
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To harmonise quality standards, and exchange formats, to facilitate access to and delivery of data to the various user communities, including research, government and industry;
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To provide federated, marine geological and geophysical datasets, ready for use in the user communities using middleware to access and deliver the data via the internet to their networks and grid infrastructures;
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To develop and to provide new dedicated geological and geophysical data products and services;
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To formulate, determine, and facilitate arrangements for use of the data and data products;
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To formulate, determine, and facilitate arrangements for consolidation and long-term exploitation of the Geo-Seas infrastructure;
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To promote the infrastructure and its services to users and to encourage adoption of the protocols, standards and tools by other marine geological and geophysical institutes and companies.
The added value of Geo-Seas will be the following:
- Users will be able to search trans-national, harmonised ISO/INSPIRE compliant metadata via the data portal;
- Users will be able to access trans-national, harmonised marine geological and geophysical datasets, supplied in common, standard formats and ready for use, via the data portal;
- New trans-national geological and geophysical data products and services will be developed to fulfil the diverse needs of end-user communities;
- The outputs of the previous EUMARSIN, EUROCORE, EUROSEISMICS, SEISCAN and SEISCANEX EU-funded projects will be incorporated and upgraded in Geo-Seas;
- The data infrastructure, standards and policies being developed by SeaDataNet will be strengthened and used more widely across Europe by both the oceanographic and marine geoscience communities;
- Greater cooperation between the data centres, coherency of data management services, trans-national outreach to user communities and the development of new trans-national data products.