The UK Polar Data Centre (UK PDC) works with a number of national and international data and information initiatives. We are always willing to develop new collaborative partnerships to improve data practices and encourage new research through data reuse and sharing.
NERC Environmental Data Service
The UK PDC works very closely with all the other designated NERC environmental data centres, as part of an Environmental Data Service (EDS). Data Centre managers meet regularly and work on a range of cross-cutting activities that aim to standardise processes and avoid duplicated effort. Completed projects include a catalogue to search NERC EDS datasets, a common data management plan wizard and a unified sharing and licensing policy. Current integration work includes the development of a large dataset upload service, a model metadata catalogue and further development of the NERC Vocabulary Server.
International polar data community
The UK PDC provides UK representation on both the SCAR Standing Committee for Data Management and the IASC sponsored Arctic Data Committee. Both these groups meet face-to-face on an annual basis to pursue projects of common interest. Examples include the creation of the Antarctic Metadata Portal (a portal of the Global Change Master Directory) where all Antarctic Data Centres have pledged to make their discovery metadata available. The UK PDC also provides representation on the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) Data Management Sub-Committee. This group provides advice to the SOOS Scientific Steering Committee in order to develop an observing system of data collected in the Southern Ocean.