Common working environment with standardised metadata for the harmonised reporting of project outputs. Deliverable D6.1 of the EU Horizon 2020 project OPTAIN.

Deliverable report D6.1 of the EU Horizon 2020 Project OPTAIN (Grant agreement No. 862756)

Description of the methods and tools for the harmonised reporting of project outputs.

Summary

We analysed standards for the common working environment (CWE) and established a platform for project partners' harmonised reporting of project outputs. The results of OPTAINs work packages addressing specific issues of the project (actor platform, measures and indicators, data mining, modelling, optimisation) are assimilated in the following way:

• Basic project integration is handled through the coordination of all elements of the project. These elements include the project management structure as defined by OPTAIN’s Grant Agreement and Consortium Agreement, Data Management Plan (D8.1), Knowledge Management Plan (MS24), Communication and dissemination strategy (D7.2), and data sharing standards.
• Cross WP and cross catchment analysis are enabled by harmonising tools, data, and process workflows. Following the ISO 21500:2012 Guidance on Project Management, the Icam DEFinition for Function Modeling (IDEF0) is used as a tool to enable such harmonisation, where database will provide possibilities for cross-Case Study analysis.
• Exchange of modelling and communication with the public will be coordinated by following the developed protocols, metadata standards via the data-sharing platforms. Selected exchange tools and platforms follow the EU rules on open access to all scientific peer-reviewed publications and research data (Article 29.2 of the Model Grant Agreement) as well as the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data principles. In addition, custom tools were created to semi-automate the generation of metadata files to ease project data and result dissemination.
• Providing the information base for the OPTAIN Learning Environment is enabled by ensuring that the OPTAIN project consortium utilises the established CWE platform and stores the data (or information) in a joint project database. Since the data, information, resources, and project results are harmonised across all the case studies and work packages, the Learning Environment can utilise these tools or use any database views to produce the necessary data or information. For example, Learning Platforms could utilise Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to extract the needed data in the required format.

The established CWE provides an understanding of the technical and functional background of the knowledge produced in the project and enables communication between project partners and stakeholders at different management levels and provides easy sharing of project results and recommendations.

From a technical standpoint, the CWE will bring together data that is shared among partners using a cloud and/or Structured Query Language (SQL) server. Version control of the created tools and models will be handled by utilising the Git software. Data sharing with the public will be performed through Zenodo, a general-purpose open-access repository developed under the European OpenAIRE. Metadata standards will be ensured by creating the metadata Extensible Markup Language (XML) files for every produced geospatial dataset.