Beyond Today's Requirements

Today, funding agencies may suggest use of robust data formats and easily accessible data archive solutions, but the actual requirements for funding proposals seldom go beyond the provision of a written plan describing how data will be collected, stored, and curated. Because data management plan requirements for funding proposals are still relatively new, agency requirements do not yet address specific data formats, techniques, or archive strategies.

At Unidata, we do not expect these minimal requirements to remain the norm over the medium to long term. We anticipate movement toward requiring that data be stored in robust formats; CMIP 5 data is already required to be stored in netCDF format files that adhere to the Climate and Forecast (CF) metadata conventions. We anticipate agency requirements for ease-of-access to stored datasets and well-designed archive strategies. We believe that by designing scientific data workflows now with these goals in mind, scientists will not only have an easier time meeting future funding requirements, but also become more productive in the near term.