The Canadian government announced today a $94 million dollar investment in the Dalhousie-led Ocean Frontier Institute. Combined with a large private donation and contributions from other partners, the collaboration among Dalhousie, Memorial, and UPEI has a budget of over $200 million.  Two SIM faculty are contributing to this “game changer for ocean research“.

Dr. Mike Smit will collaborate with colleagues in the Faculty of Computer Science to co-lead two of the initial OFI projects focused on ocean data and technology.  “Data collected by shared research infrastructure for the benefit of the OFI and/or its international partners needs to be available, discoverable, and usable by a set of people with highly varied data skills,”, said Dr. Smit, referencing some of his work on data literacy. “Data produced by the OFI will, when possible, need to be shared publicly for the benefit of national and international researchers and related to the evolving national research data infrastructure. Building and understanding varied information and data management policies and practices will be important to ensuring OFI can collaborate the way it needs to in order to tackle challenging research questions.”

Dr. Bertrum MacDonald is working with colleagues at Memorial University to understand how the science produced by bodies like OFI is translated into policy and decision-making. This work ties in well with his Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) interdisciplinary research and the launch of EIUI's new book, Science, Information, and Policy Interface for Effective Coastal and Ocean Management.

These projects illustrate the broad applicability of information management to a variety of fields and contexts. We are excited to watch as the largest research award in the history of Dalhousie University takes shape over the next few years, and we look forward to hearing more about the contributions of our colleagues to this important initiative!