Presentation Information
[7MgO-EqD-02]Federated Data Architectures for Environmental Evidence: Observations from Offshore Energy Programmes and the DAFNI Fellowship
*Thomas Mansfield1 (1. Plymouth Marine Laboratory (UK))
The increasing scale and complexity of environmental evidence generated through offshore energy programmes presents significant challenges for data interoperability, discoverability, and reuse. While FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data principles are widely recognised, their implementation across distributed projects, organisations, and disciplines remains inconsistent. This fragmentation can limit the integration of environmental datasets into digital research infrastructures and reduce their value for digital twins, decision-making and policy development.
This paper presents findings from a DAFNI (Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure) Fellowship investigating how federated data architectures can support improved environmental data management across UK offshore energy programmes. Drawing on experiences from the EQUIFy, VALMAS and AtlantiS projects, the research examines technical, organisational and workflow-related barriers to interoperability, with a particular focus on metadata practices, data onboarding, and cross-community collaboration.
The study adopts an iterative co-design approach involving stakeholders from academia, industry, government and environmental data centres. Evidence is collected through a series of workshops, structured observations and engagement activities embedded within existing project and community events. These insights are synthesised to identify recurring challenges and emerging good practices for enabling federated approaches that allow communities to maintain local ownership of data while supporting system-wide integration and reuse.
The work demonstrates how federated FAIR workflows can enhance the readiness of environmental datasets for integration with platforms such as DAFNI, improving reproducibility and supporting national-scale digital infrastructure initiatives. It also explores the role of digital research environments in bridging the gap between technical standards and operational practice.
These interim findings provide practical recommendations for digital twin communities seeking to improve the interoperability and long-term value of environmental evidence. More broadly, the work highlights how federated architectures can strengthen the digital foundations needed to support resilient, evidence-driven decision making in the transition to sustainable offshore energy systems.
This paper presents findings from a DAFNI (Data & Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure) Fellowship investigating how federated data architectures can support improved environmental data management across UK offshore energy programmes. Drawing on experiences from the EQUIFy, VALMAS and AtlantiS projects, the research examines technical, organisational and workflow-related barriers to interoperability, with a particular focus on metadata practices, data onboarding, and cross-community collaboration.
The study adopts an iterative co-design approach involving stakeholders from academia, industry, government and environmental data centres. Evidence is collected through a series of workshops, structured observations and engagement activities embedded within existing project and community events. These insights are synthesised to identify recurring challenges and emerging good practices for enabling federated approaches that allow communities to maintain local ownership of data while supporting system-wide integration and reuse.
The work demonstrates how federated FAIR workflows can enhance the readiness of environmental datasets for integration with platforms such as DAFNI, improving reproducibility and supporting national-scale digital infrastructure initiatives. It also explores the role of digital research environments in bridging the gap between technical standards and operational practice.
These interim findings provide practical recommendations for digital twin communities seeking to improve the interoperability and long-term value of environmental evidence. More broadly, the work highlights how federated architectures can strengthen the digital foundations needed to support resilient, evidence-driven decision making in the transition to sustainable offshore energy systems.
Comment
To browse or post comments, you must log in.Log in