Grant Success for news SMMI Research Fellow Dr Sam Robinson

In January 2022, SMMI Research Fellow Dr Sam Robinson will embark upon a new five-year project on the history of world research data sharing. The European Research Council Advance Grant is led by Dr Simone Turchetti (PI) based at the University of Manchester and involves colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Berlin), the Czech Academy of Science, the University of São Paulo, and Peking University.

The project ‘Negotiating World Research Data: A science diplomacy study’ aims to provide the first comprehensive survey of the science diplomacy exercises that have contributed to shape current world data, centres, systems and networks. Research data is a vital component of any scientific enterprise and the world data exchange practices are a decisive factor, locally and globally in strengthening capacity for research and innovation and tackling societal challenges. Using historical methods, the project will focusing particular on interactions between non- and inter- governmental scientific organizations such as those under the aegis of ICSU and UNESCO; western and eastern bloc academics in the context of Cold War science, and Global North and South organizations in the uses of research data for development purposes. Shedding new light on how these interactions have shaped research data circulation, the project will evaluate the merits and shortcomings of existing provisions, also to envision ways to make world data systems more inclusive and responsive to global challenges.

Sam’s research at Southampton will concern the construction of international ocean data sharing systems by organisations such as the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission since the 1960s. Using the excellent resources of the National Oceanography Library at NOCS.