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Workshop

Navigating data lakes for Earth and marine science: FAIR Data management and Service Interoperability in practice

This workshop is envisioned as an addition to the Blue-Cloud Training Academy, which aims to stimulate the uptake of FAIR data practices in marine science and neighbouring disciplines, through contributions by key actors such as EuroGOOS and IEEE. The workshop also has a strong overlap with the FAIR-IMPACT project regarding development and uptake of FAIR service descriptions (expansion of FAIR software) and methods for assessment.

This workshop is envisioned as an addition to the Blue-Cloud Training Academy, which aims to stimulate the uptake of FAIR data practices in marine science and neighbouring disciplines, through contributions by key actors such as EuroGOOS and IEEE. The workshop also has a strong overlap with the FAIR-IMPACT project regarding development and uptake of FAIR service descriptions (expansion of FAIR software) and methods for assessment.

To manage and provide access to a large amount of data, a federated or distributed Data Lake can be a solution but it presents some technical bottlenecks and sustainability constraints. For the federation of services it is crucial to achieve technical and semantic interoperability between the services for providing added value to users. “Just providing API’s” is not sufficient. As a basis each data access service (being a “plain” dataset access service or a more advanced subsetting service) needs a FAIR service description which includes e.g. the expected input, output, processing capacity, data policy (CC-BY), etc.

Both Blue-Cloud 2026 and FAIR-EASE run into this complex data lake challenge which could be well supported by FAIR service descriptions. Blue-Cloud 2026 is active in the marine domain developing virtual labs, work benches for Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) on top of Blue Data Infrastructure services, and, FAIR-EASE develops similar services on top of data access services in the multi-disciplinary domain. Both projects (in coordination with other projects (e.g.,EuroSciencesGateway) contribute to the implementation of the EOSC interoperability framework.

Presentations are available here.

Details

  • DATE:
    27 September 2023
  • ROOM:
    Sala Ciudad Úbeda

Organisers

Speakers

Rita Giuffrida

Trust-IT Services

Patricia Cabrera

Flanders Marine Institute

Peter Thijsse

MARIS

Maria Luisa Chiusano

University of Naples Federico II

Katrina Exter

Flanders Marine Institute

Massimiliano Assante

CNR

Marie Jossé

CNRS

Short Bios

  • Rita Giuffrida

    Rita Giuffrida is a researcher and communication expert at Trust-IT srl, actively involved in various FAIR-oriented projects. She has a background in Industrial Engineering and recently completed an MBA with a focus on circular economy. Her MBA project was inspired by the EU-funded initiative Blue-Cloud 2026, where she explored the application of FAIR data management practices to enhance circular economy principles in the aquaculture industry. Currently, Rita serves as the Project Manager for the Blue-Cloud 2026 project.

  • Patricia Cabrera

    Patricia is a marine biologist with experience in biodiversity projects, both at the scientific level and in project management. She is a member of the Data Centre at the Flanders Marine Institute. Her work focuses on the integration of new types of biological observations in European marine infrastructures. She is involved in several aspects of data management in different European projects, dealing with plankton, imaging, marine litter and geospatial data and products. In Blue-Cloud she led the Zoo and Phytoplankton EOVs demonstrator and in Blue Cloud 2026 she coordinates 5 thematic Virtual Laboratories in combining different data types from several Blue Data Infrastructures to generate innovative data products that will solve key questions in marine research.

  • Peter Thijsse

    Peter specialises in two areas: coordinating web application development for marine data projects in European collaborations and leading national projects for website and application development, particularly in the recreation and tourism sector. His expertise lies in developing complex data access systems, with a key focus on web mapping (GIS) to display data and locations on background maps. Notable projects include the SeaDataNet CDI service, WaLTER Dataportaal, and an ongoing "planner" plus App for walking routes on an intricate track network.

  • Maria Luisa Chiusano

    Experienced Professor of Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics in the Dept. of Agricultural Sciences and Associate Scientist of the Marine Station Anton Dohrn, where she coordinates the Biocomputing Service. She has demonstrated history of working for science. Skilled in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Life Sciences, expert in Genomics, Metagenomics, Integrative omics Bioinformatics, Systems Biology. Strong research professional graduated from Biological Sciences University Federico II Naples, PhD in the Second University of Naples, Post Doc in The Marine Station Anton Dohrn. She had experience in Tokyo, Gainesville, Paris for research activities. Responsible and coordinator of Activities in National and International Projects (EU and non EU).

  • Katrina Exter

    I hold a PhD in Astrophysics; after a career studying the stars, I became a data manager for the Flanders Marine Institute’s Data Centre. I have been involved in a number of Open Science and FAIR data projects, making marine data more accessible, more rapidly, for a wider audience; on helping the data creators make their data FAIR from the get-go; on expanding the publishing models for marine data.

  • Massimiliano Assante

    Senior Researcher at CNR - National Research Council, Operations Manager of D4Science, leads the Blue-Cloud2026 WP dedicated to the VRE platform evolution and integration with EOSC resources and services. Massimiliano holds a PhD in Information Engineering from University of Pisa. He has over 16 years of experience working on distributed systems, e-infrastructures and Virtual Research Environments.

  • Marie Jossé

    Component development engineer for the open source platform Galaxy within the framework of the Horizon Europe project FAIR-EASE. Integration of tools and workflows on Galaxy to process Earth System, environment and biodiversity data.

    Agenda

    11:30 Welcome – _Rita Giuffrida (Trust-IT)

    • Interdisciplinary user environments
    • 11:35 _Patricia Cabrera, VLIZ (Blue-Cloud 2026)
    • 11:50 _Maria Luisa Chiusano, UNINA (FAIR-EASE)

    12:05 The Mythical Data Lake - _Katrina Exter, VLIZ (FAIR-EASE)
    12:20 Interactive session with the audience – _Rita Giuffrida (Trust-IT)
    12:30 Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment services for Open
    Science practices - Massimiliano Assante, CNR (Blue-Cloud 2026)
    12:45 Virtual Research Environment (process data As FAIR As
    Possible) - Marie Jossé, CNRS (FAIR-EASE)
    13:00 FAIR Data Discovery and Access -Peter Thijsse, MARIS
    (Blue-Cloud 2026/FAIR-EASE)
    13:15 Q&A and reflections