In situ observations of black carbon in the Arctic
Action 1.4: Further incentivise sharing of data from campaign black carbon measurements in the Arctic
The EU-funded technical report Review of Observation Capacities and Data Availability for Black Carbon in the Arctic Region (EUABCA 2019a) highlights differences between observations conducted as part of long-term sustained monitoring systems and those resulting from measurement campaigns and ad-hoc research projects.
The potential utilisation of data from the research projects can be compromised by lack of incentive for project coordinators and co-researchers to share data and to make them available for purposes beyond the immediate objectives of the research project. Research data publication in e.g. journal articles can involve significant delays to data availability, and typically data are reported in an aggregated form that is not suitable for other purposes (such as combining data from different sources).
AMAP could consider exploring mechanisms that incentivise and stimulate data sharing. By formally committing to share the data, researchers proposing relevant Arctic measurements would improve their chances to secure funding. To implement this, AMAP may consider a proposal endorsement mechanism that is contingent on subsequent data sharing and/or working with relevant national and international funding agencies to explore how explicit data sharing instructions could be included in the funding requirements. In addition to stimulating data sharing, proper coordination of shared data is essential. AMAP could therefore consider how the above options can explicitly encourage the use of existing data sharing databases and initiatives (e.g., EBAS) to ensure that collected data are available, shared and inter-comparable.
