Kool heads prevail for Antarctic data management

Australian Antarctic Data Centre Manager Dr Johnathan Kool has been appointed to Chair the Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management, which is part of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research.

The four-year appointment will see Dr Kool — who strives to make data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable — work with representatives from other national Antarctic programs to enhance the interoperable and reusable aspects of FAIR data.

“The committee aims to develop common standards and approaches to data collection that means the data can be used by anyone in any country. Representatives then work within the relevant organisations in their countries to ensure the approach is adopted,” Dr Kool said.

Dr Kool will also be helping to improve the collection and recording of ‘data about the data’ — or ‘metadata’. This tells users where the data was collected, what it is, who collected it and how it was collected. Dr Kool is looking forward to the opportunities his new role presents for data management and the research community.

“Better information leads to better decisions, which leads to better outcomes,” Dr Kool said.

Image credit: Simon Payne