199 IIOE-2 data and information management

The second International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE-2) is a multinational research program endorsed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO in 2015. The research focus is the Indian Ocean basin with broad, trans-disciplinary science themes designed to encourage wide participation. The current science implementation plan (1) calls for the full range of ocean research platforms including research vessels, vessels of opportunity, mooring arrays, floats, gliders, satellite imagery, lab-based experiments and modelling efforts. Securing funding for such a complex, coordinated, multinational research program is difficult. The plan is to coordinate the research via joint program offices hosted at IOC Perth and the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) in Hyderabad, India, complemented by several national efforts. The research will be carried out by investigator teams that must arrange for their own research grants, funded within their respective nations. While the IIOE- 2 researchers recognize that management of data and information is critical to the success of the research objectives, funding a program-specific data and information management effort for IIOE-2 is extremely difficult.