Marine Research Infrastructures Database

Technical notes

Definition and explanations proposed for each descriptor used in this database.

“Research infrastructures” and “Facilities”

“Research infrastructures” (RI) is the most common general wording to evoke the set of installations and services offered to researchers to carry out their scientific activities. But as long as we consider a list, it is the word “facility” which is the most often used, including by operators themselves on their web sites. A “facility” is an installation or a service by itself, which offer a specific access to researchers, at national level at least, at transnational level when appropriate (e.g. in the framework of a European project I3 eg type), in all cases beyond the limits of the research institutes which host and operate them. A research “facility” is more than an “equipment” or a “sensor”, which themselves can be part of the facility. A research “facility” is not just a building with offices and usually equipped labs for home scientists; it should bring a specific support for a research activity.

First section of information : “Facility information and contact”

“Category”, “Sub-category” and “Type”

To face the complexity of the lanscape and provide users with an understandable list if not perfect, we have retained the SEAS-ERA categorization proposed for their marine RI overview, and adding the notion of sub-categories and types whenever necessary to be descriptive at the best. Categories and sub-categories are part of the search criteria, they are representatives of the skills and jobs requested to design and operate every group of facilities so categorized by “horizontal" business lines. This approach could be compared with the scientific one, through projects usually “vertically” organized from experiments and data acquisition to scientific knowledge and dissemination, relying on different technical skills and related RI. It is also a choice guided by the existence of ESFRI and I3 projects and their perimeter, by the idea that operational coordination at European level with a central governance will develop more easily and naturally within these “horizontal” consortia.

For marine RI, we can distinguish 6 “Categories” and among them some “Sub-categories” : this latest sub-division being often representative of the perimeter of an Eu consortium (I3 or ESFRI or eq.) which could sustained operational and integrated activities. “Type” is more an additional mention of the facility main technical feature when relevant and useful. For example:

Category	Sub-category	Type
In situ data acquisition systems	Fixed point open ocean observatories	Underwater observatory
Research vessels and their underwater vehicles	Underwater vehicles	ROV
Land-based facilities and in situ testing sites for ocean engineering and ocean observation support	Wave basins, wave flumes	basin 80 x 50 x 10

Categories and Sub-categories adopted :

Research Vessels and their underwater vehicles (for sea access and deep sea exploration/sampling) :

Research vessels
Underwater vehicles
Other large exchangeable equipment

In situ data acquisition systems (for seawater/seabed monitoring and observation) :

Fixed point open ocean observatories (Nota : including moorings by > 1000m water depth)
Mobile ocean observatories (Nota : including gliders and Ferrybox which can be used also in coastal waters)
Coastal observatories (Nota : including moorings by < 1000m water depth)
Infrastructure for deep ocean drilling research
Other facilities

Satellites for seas and oceans observation (remote sensing for sea-surface monitoring) :

Coast watch (Satellites for land and coastal waters observation)
Ocean watch (Satellites for ocean observation)

Marine data providers (for data validation, storage and dissemination through web portals, incl.access to high computing facilities & generic modeling)

No Sub-category so far ....

Land-based facilities and in-situ testing sites for ocean engineering and ocean observation support:

Wave basins, wave flumes
Current and wave-current flumes
Other land-based test facilities
In situ test sites

Experimental facilities for biology and ecosystem studies :

Marine biology stations (existence of genomics facility is mentioned in “type”)
Aquaculture research facilities
Mesocosms facilities
Ecosystem and Biodiversity Observatories network (under construction)
Other facilities

“Name” :

The name of the facility, as it appears on the operators web site, is not always specify using an acronym or clear evident. Often, more than one word is necessary. Examples :

"Ocean Surveyor" (a Vessel)
"Iberian Margin" (an underwater observatory)
"Pleiades-HR 1B" (a satellite)
"MRI Data library" (a marine data provider within MRI)
"Narec Large Scale Wave Flume" (the wave Flume of Narec)
"Stirling Institute of Aquaculture" (Aquaculture facilities of the Stirling University operated by its Institute of Aquaculture)

We encourage the operator to clearly name their facilities, using an acronym or a very short expression.

“Owner” :

The owner could be either the head institution of the “Operator” (the most common case, e.g. “University” of which “Department xxx” operates the “Facility yyy”) or in some case a different institution.

“Operator” and “Status operator”

As the database is “facility access oriented”, the mentioned operator is exactly the institution in charge of the service offered, of the access conditions and of the planning. Of course, most of such defined operators can be also in charge of long-term investment perspective, new design, updating, and refit or replacement plan. A specific case: for the satellites, the “operator” so mentioned is the ground segment in charge of the data dissemination and of specific remote sensing orders for one area/one period when this ability exists.

“Status operator” could be “public research”, “other public administration” or “private”.

Note: Private providers of vessels, facilities, equipment or services not committed on a regular basis with the public research community are not listed in this database. In particular, all the suppliers of the offshore oil & gas industry are not listed.

“Country”

It is the operator country. At first, we consider all the EU countries with a coast line + the associated countries within the framework programme (FP7, H2020). In a second step of construction of the database, we will add also the facilities of countries which complete the perimeter of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea.

“Main operating areas” , descriptor for the field:

All oceans
Atlantic Ocean
Pacific Ocean
Indian Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Antarctic Seas
Baltic Sea
North Sea
Celtic Seas
Bay of Biscay
Iberian Coast
Mediterranean Sea
Black Sea
Red Sea (due account to the Eilat station specific case)

Reference for the European sea basins: those adopted for the Atlas of the sea by DG Mare here

More than one “operating area” should be mentioned for a facility when relevant, for example:

R/V Celtic Voyager : Celtic seas, Atlantic ocean

“Main scientific disciplines or issues”, descriptor for the field:

Multi-purpose
Physical oceanography
Bathymetry & hydrography
Geology & geo-hazards
Chemistry
Biogeochemistry
Biology
Marine genomics
Fisheries
Aquaculture
Marine environment
Ecosystems & Biodiversity
Sea/Ice
Meteorology
Ocean engineering
Other

We are aware that this list has some overlap, but it is so more flexible to properly cover all the scientific activities which could be performed with the use of a given facility.

“Contact person”, “Email”, “Phone” and “Address” :

The “contact person” is as much as possible the one in charge (or at least to contact) for the facility access issue, and we mention it’s full coordinates to join him: “Email”, “Phone” and “Address”. By default, the contact person is the entry point of the operator.

“URL Operator”

The link to the Operator home page.

“URL Facility”

The link to the facility page in the Operator web site. We encourage every Operator to create an home page for each of their facilities, in English, with exactly the same sections as the one proposed for this MRI database : see a proposed model in annex here after.

“Year built”, “Year of last refit”

It is an interesting data when available and/or relevant, as statistics could be derived on the age of a given population of facilities, and so to contribute to a needs and gaps analysis.

“Last update of information” :

Automatic field generated at each update.

For section 2 : “Additionnal information” :

“Length (m”) or “Max. operating depth” (m)” :

When relevant (e.g. length for vessels, max. operating depth for underwater vehicles or for in situ instrumentation), information is possible to retrieve useful statistics and also contribute to a needs and gaps analysis.

“Location , Latitude and Longitude”

We consider several types of location depending of the facility sub-category:

For the general case, it is the operator location : town or exactly town & address,
For the case of fixed in situ observatories or in situ test sites, it is the facility real location,
For the case of vessels, it is its usual home harbor, not its administrative one which could be different,

“Services currently offered”

Link to the operator dedicated web page, if any

“Access conditions”

Link to the operator dedicated web page

“Examples of scientific projects and data acquired”

Link to the operator dedicated web page

“Photos gallery”

Link to the operator dedicated web page

“Logo of operator”

Link to the operator logo

Technical details file

Link to the operator dedicated web page

Annex: Message to the operators

We propose the operators to adopt a common model for each facility entry page, within their web site, in English or with an English version, with description and links in correspondence with the similar sections in the database.

Proposition: MRI database “URL facility” leads to this model entry page :

Name of the facility :

Operator :

Photo:

Short description :

Services currently offered :
short description + link to more details (same link as in the database)

Access conditions :
short description + link to more details(same link as in the database)

Examples of scientific activities carried out with the facility : Project(s) title(s) + link to more details (same link as in the database)

Photo gallery (same link as in the database)

Technical details (same link as in the database)