17 January 2025
So many interesting questions were put to Alessandra Giorgetti and Chiara Altobelli of the National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC) at OGS, and Gianvito Laterza, the NODC’s ISO consultant from NEOS Group Srl, during the Open Science Cafè, which took place yesterday 16 January. This regular appointment is organised by the Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure to exchange information and opinions on a specific Open Science topic. NODC talked about its quality management system (QMS) that the Centre has implemented to regularly improve the data management system and services.
During the event Giorgetti explained that in 2022, the NODC decided to embark on a path of continuous improvement of its services in a structured and documented way. This was made possible by the introduction of a QMS that was also developed by the Data Centre to gain official recognition of its national role in marine data management. This goal was achieved in 2024 when the Centre was accredited by UNESCO as a National Oceanographic Data Centre of the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange programme (IODE). IODE was established in 1961 by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO to promote marine research, exploration and development, to facilitate the exchange of oceanographic data and information between Member States and to meet the needs of users. NODC has been accredited because it has implemented a QMS and acts in accordance with international standards for marine data management and Open Science. The UNESCO accreditation demonstrates that NODC is committed to the quality of data management, verifying its validity and ensuring its preservation, security and accessibility. As required by UNESCO, the NODC's QMS is based on the provisions of the UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 standard “Quality management system - Requirements”.
Laterza's presentation provided an overview of the strategic and support processes implemented, documented and monitored by NODC to ensure the economic, human and infrastructural resources for NODC's primary activities. These were described by Altobelli, who presented some processes related to the management of the entire life cycle of data, i.e. receiving data, controlling their quality, storing and making them available and reusable.
Here are available (In Italian)
