Meetings

Our governing body, the MEDIN Sponsors’ Board, comprises one member from each funding organisation and meets biannually, ensuring each funder has the opportunity to influence our national and international work. The Board is responsible for defining the strategic direction of MEDIN, approving work programmes and budgets. The Sponsors’ Board meets twice a year. For meeting minutes or more information, please email MEDIN enquiries. 

Our Sponsors Board is supported by an Executive Team, which meets quarterly and provides interim guidance and management of our operational work programme between Sponsors’ Board meetings. The Executive Team is made up of four sponsor members(Defra, NERC/NOC, Scottish Government and a fourth member, currently UKHO, as voted by the Sponsors’ Board) three subject experts (the chairs of the MEDIN Working Groups) and the MEDIN work stream managers. Our Executive Team meets four times a year. For meeting minutes and information, please email MEDIN enquiries.

MEDIN Open meetings take place annually and open to anyone with an interest in marine data management to attend. As of 2023, these meetings will always be hybrid. For meeting minutes and information prior to 2020, please contact MEDIN enquiries.

The DAC Working Group chaired by Richenda Houseago-Stokes (British Oceanographic Data Centre) and Dan Lear (Marine Biological Association), is an operational network of accredited Data Archive Centres who work to facilitate the long-term storage and access to the United Kingdom’s valuable marine environmental data resources. The group work together to ensure datasets are archived according to best practice, ensure data holdings are clearly searchable and offer advice on the management of marine data. They also produce an annual report summarising the capabilities and recent activities of all accredited MEDIN DACs, including Key Performance Indicators related to data use. The group meet twice a year. You can view the DAC Terms of Reference here.

MEDIN Application Programming Interface (API) Workshop

Download MEDIN API Workshop presentations

For DAC Working Group meeting minutes and information, please email Richenda or Dan.

Our Standards Working Group (SWG) is comprised of members of our partner organisations with expertise in marine data and metadata standards and meets quarterly. The SWG is responsible for the MEDIN Discovery Metadata Standard, tools, and Data Guidelines. The group advises on standards-related issues and provide collaborative links with other national and international marine/environmental data standards initiatives. They govern and curate controlled vocabularies used by MEDIN and support the planning and delivery of our training workshops. You can view the SWG Terms of Reference here. To get involved or to access meeting minutes and information, please email Roseanna.

For meeting minutes and information, please contact MEDIN enquiries.

The Portal Steering Group is chaired by Gaynor Evans (MEDIN) and discusses MEDIN Portal developments and MEDIN Portal activities on the work programme each financial year. From time to time, MEDIN conducts user feedback surveys to steer MEDIN portal upgrades which make easier for users to access marine data.

For Portal Steering Group minutes and information, please contact Gaynor.

The MEDIN Communications Working Group is chaired by Charlotte Miskin-Hymas (MEDIN) and consists of communications experts from the network to improve communication between data managers, project managers and the wider marine community. From best use of social media platforms to methods of communication, this group utilises expertise in the field to improve knowledge share around the network. 

For Communications Working Group minutes and information, please contact Charlotte.