The Marine Environmental Data and Information Network (MEDIN) has taken an exciting step forward: all data described on its central web portal are now accessible through the UN Ocean Decade’s digital infrastructure.

In 2024, MEDIN joined the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS), a global federation of partners coordinated by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO through its International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE) programme.

 

What This Means

  • MEDIN’s catalogue of UK marine data and information is now discoverable and actionable across all ODIS partners and users.
  • This allows portals like IODE’s Ocean InfoHub to deliver UK marine data to new audiences worldwide.
  • Any data archived with an accredited MEDIN data centre can now be accessed through ODIS.

 

Why It Matters

This capability is a major step toward interoperating with the emerging digital infrastructure for the UN Ocean Decade. It:

  • Greatly enhances the findability of UK marine data.
  • Supports MEDIN’s ethos of “measure once, use many times.”
  • Strengthens MEDIN’s role as a global leader in marine data sharing.

 

Collaboration Behind the Scenes

This milestone is the result of several months of collaboration between MEDIN and the ODIS team, ensuring full system compatibility. Thanks to the hard work of MEDIN partners, particularly the data archive centres, our rich metadata and interoperable systems made the integration seamless.

One of MEDIN’s key objectives is to help the UK marine sector adopt global, cross-domain interoperable data services. Because of this focus, much of the technical infrastructure needed for integration was already in place.

MEDIN had previously developed a lightweight schema.org JSON-LD implementation of its catalogue to make its metadata discoverable through Google Dataset Search. Building on that foundation, we’ve since enriched the JSON-LD by adding new metadata elements and enhancing interoperability across existing properties.

 

A Shared Global Goal

Just like MEDIN at the national level, ODIS has an international mission: to coordinate action and build capacity that improves access to ocean data and knowledge.

Today, MEDIN contributes the greatest number of datasets to Ocean InfoHub globally, making us the largest single contributor to this critical digital infrastructure.

Learn more

Learn more about MEDIN’s partnership with ODIS here.