Blue-Cloud 2026 - D2.2 New Blue Data Infrastructures – Service Analysis Report

The Blue Cloud Data Discovery and Access Service (DD&AS) is one of the core components of the Blue-Cloud technical framework. It It facilitates discovery and retrieval of marine data sets and data products from blue data infrastructures (BDIs), such as key EU infrastructures such as Copernicus Marine Service, EMODnet, SeaDataNet, and more, for external users in stand-alone mode. It interacts with the Blue-Cloud Virtual Research Environment, the component federating computing platforms and analytical services, for populating the VRE data pool. As part of the predecessor pilot Blue-Cloud project, the first operational release of the Blue-Cloud DD&AS has been deployed. The current version of the service is federating in total 8 BDIs and with 9 data services. As part of the Blue-Cloud 2026 project, it is planned to expand the DD&AS federation with data discovery and access services from 4 new BDIs, namely: • European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water column Observatory (EMSO) • Svalbard Integrated Arctic Earth Observing System (SIOS) • ELIXIR - MGnify • EMODnet Physics. The implementation of the Blue Cloud DD&AS largely depends on machine-to-machine interactions between central components of the DD&AS and web services / APIs as managed and operated by the BDIs. In this deliverable a short overview is given of the current architecture and functionality of the Blue- Cloud DD&AS to provide good insight in the DD&AS conceptual principles. Per each new BDI a description is given of their organisation, structure, aims, contents, data discovery and access services, and available web services and/or APIs, followed by an assessment of how each BDI might be federated in the DD&AS, fitting into the overall concept. The gathering of information about each new BDI and the follow-up analyses and assessment have been performed thanks to a two-way dialogue between MARIS and CNR-IIA, as core DD&AS developers, with each of the new BDIs and associated technical providers. This activity started at the plenary WP2 working session at the Project Kick-Off meeting, on 13–15 February 2023 in Pisa – Italy, and continued during the the first Technical and Scientific Committee (TSC) meeting, 28-29 March 2023 in Amsterdam – Netherlands. Since then, the managers of the new BDIs have compiled information about their BDI and services, following a provided template. Bilateral web conferences followed with managers of each of the BDIs during August – October 2023 to discuss findings and suggestions for the federation. This consultation phase resulted in concrete plans for federating each of the 4 new BDIs, which are documented in this Deliverable D2.2 - New Blue Data Infrastructures – Service Analysis Report. These plans will be worked out and taken into development in the coming period as part of the WP2 activities.