IMDIS 2026- Split (Croatia), 30 Nov - 3 Dec 2026 International Conference on Marine Data and Information Systems

IMDIS showcases recent advances in:

• infrastructures for managing large and diverse data sets, 
• standards & interoperable information systems, 
• services, tools and platforms
• transformation of marine data into information, knowledge & decision-support products

The Conference highlights different systems enabling online access to data, metadata and products, communication standards and adapted technology to ensure platform interoperability. Sessions focus on infrastructures, technologies, products and services serving a wide range of users including researchers, environmental authorities, educators, decision-makers, etc.

The next edition will be held in Split (Croatia) from Monday 30 November to Thursday 3 December 2026 and organized by IOF (Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries), jointly with SeaDataNet AISBL, IFREMER, MARIS, NOC and INGV.

Sessions & programme

Session TECH: Technical developments for marine information and data management

This session focuses on technical solutions, standards and best practices supporting robust, interoperable and scalable marine data systems. Topics include:

• Standards for data interoperability (e.g. INSPIRE, vocabularies, data formats, Sensor Web Enablement, Semantic Web, Linked data)
• FAIR principles applied to metadata, data & software
• Data citation, PID (e.g. DOI) and data versioning
• System monitoring and performance optimisation
• Best practices for data workflows & system architectures
• Data centre and repository accreditation/certification (e.g. IODE Quality Management Framework, CoreTrustSeal, etc.)
• Solutions for real-time & near-real-time data from ocean measuring devices (manned and unmanned)
• Automation and AI-supported data management processes
• Technologies and knowledge transfer

Session PRODUCTS: Data products, information and knowledge

This session addresses the generation, validation, dissemination and use of marine data products, from raw observations to value-added information and knowledge. Topics include:

• Quality Control procedures and data consistency assessment for historical data collections for climatic studies
• Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence and application to data processing, quality control & product generation
• Regional and global marine data collections and aggregations
• Validation of data products and uncertainty estimation
• Distribution and publication of data products
• Data products for multiple stakeholders/end users including the Blue Economy/Blue Growth/Maritime Spatial Planning
• Data integration and evaluation of data portal solutions
• Systems and products for outreach and dissemination, including Ocean Literacy
• Data (and metadata) rescue and integration into data centre systems
• Contributions supporting the UN Ocean Decade Challenges
• Citizen data (crowdsourced, Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI))

Session INFRA: Marine environmental infrastructures for observation data (data management and access)

This session focuses on marine environmental data infrastructures, including their organisation, interoperability and access mechanisms. Topics include:

• Operational oceanography metadata/data systems
• Physical and biogeochemical metadata/data systems
• Geophysical and geological metadata/data systems
• Fisheries and biological metadata/data systems
• Cross infrastructure & cross-domain initiatives (e.g. ENVRI, EuroSea... )
• Marine pollution metadata/data systems (contaminants, marine litter, noise...)
• Sustainability, governance & long-term operation of data infrastructures
• Metadata analysis & enrichment

Session SERVICES: Data services and tools in ocean science

This session covers services, platforms and tools enabling discovery, access, analysis and use of  marine data. Topics include:

• Services and tools for discovery, visualisation, dissemination and education, addressing diverse user communities
• Services and tools for data ingestion, processing and analysis
• Services and tools for data management (data reformatting, quality checks, data access…)
• Virtual Research Environment (VRE), Cloud environment & scalable computing
• Digital Twins of the Ocean and associated modelling and simulation services
• European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
• Artificial Intelligence based tools for marine data analysis and decision-support
• Open data & open science practices in the marine domain
• Federated search & cross-platform service integration