How to build a collaborative ocean data ecosystem

Despite gaps in our understanding of the ocean, useful data exists across public agencies, research institutions, industry, civil society and coastal communities. Yet too much of it remains fragmented, difficult to discover, hard to combine, or locked behind technical, legal and institutional barriers. Participants returned to a common point: the priority is not simply to collect more data, but to make existing data more usable, connected and trusted.

This is not just a technical challenge. It is a question of governance, incentives and judgement. Participants cited weak interoperability, inconsistent standards, uneven access rules, poor metadata, limited skilled staff and unclear ownership and consent. These constraints weigh most heavily on smaller institutions, remote communities and countries that are wary of contributing data into systems that do not protect sovereignty or reflect local priorities.

What emerged from the roundtables was a practical agenda. Participants were less interested in creating another abstract vision for ocean data than in identifying the steps that would make sharing and interoperability more normal over the next year. The recommendations below reflect that discussion.