On November 12th, 2025, ROSA hosted its Data Governance in Motion workshop in Cambridge, MA with hybrid participation. Attendees from 26 states, research institutes, developers, and fisheries management councils came together to discuss advancing standards for ocean and fisheries data sharing. The full-day forum included data interests from state and federal agencies, developers, researchers, and data experts to align shared policies, frameworks, and best practices for improving data reuse and interoperability across the region.
Attendee David Ciochetto, aerospace and ocean engineer and program manager in marine energy and environment from Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) said, “We look at the structural health of turbine foundations. As the only group working with this kind of data, data governance is critical to moving from simply storing years of information to using standardized formats and creating meaningful metadata that make the information more widely usable.” Ciochetto added “ROSA’s Data Governance Program is providing an important example of how to tie data from different sources all together – moving from isolated, stored data to standardized formats and metadata will make long-term information accessible and more valuable, whether the data are informing ecosystem health or structural health.”
ROSA’s Data Governance Program supports free and open access to ocean fisheries data. As ocean development expands, informed science is more critical than ever. For data to inform decision-making, it must be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, also known as FAIR. ROSA’s Program is providing guidance for data on fisheries, offshore wind, and ocean development in support of future regional assessments.
ROSA Research Program Director Mike Pol stated: “The workshop confirmed for me the broad support in the marine science community for ROSA’s leadership on data governance for fishing gear and other data to assess impacts and to inform regional decision-making”.
ROSA also focuses on coordinated, transparent research to inform decision-making in the face of expanding ocean uses connected to the blue economy and the impacts of climate change.
Reneé Reilly, Executive Director concluded: “Data Governance in Motion reinforced why consistent policies, standards, and workflows across the fisheries data ecosystem are so essential right now. As ocean uses expand and climate change accelerates ecological change, decision-makers need data that are not just collected, but truly usable. ROSA is focused on building an integrated, transparent approach to offshore fisheries data governance, one that supports data sharing, regional assessments, and long-term stewardship of marine biodiversity.”