Ifremer

IT and Marine Data Unit

The IT and Marine Data (Informatique et Données Marines — IDM) Unit is in charge of developing and managing the shared IT infrastructures at IFREMER and the oceanographic data centre to provide seamless, efficient service, adapted to the use and capacities of the Institute.

Organisation

The IDM research unit is located in Brest and Nantes and composed of one Management IT centre and three service departments:

  • Information Technology and Communications Resources (Ressources Informatiques et Communications — RIC): this service department provides development, implementation, maintenance and accounts management services associated with hardware and software architecture and with applications included in the ITC services used at all IFREMER sites.
  • IT Systems Engineering (IT Systems Engineering — ISI): this service department designs, develops and enhances scientific IT systems for IFREMER projects and maintains its expertise in IT, data management and standardisation. These systems integrate smoothly with national, European and international operational networks.
  • Marine Science Information Systems (Systèmes d'Informations Scientifiques pour la Mer — SISMER): this service department ensures the archiving and management of marine scientific data and associated information. SISMER is the French National Oceanographic Data Centre (NODC). It provides all the technical services required to facilitate data acquisition — particularly for automated observatories —, compilation of observation data, including all the measurements taken on research vessels and underwater vehicles, formatting and quality control, access to data and data use, compliance with regulations. Its objectives are to guarantee the durability of the observations recorded, the harmonisation of the data and their accessibility. The SISMER service is also the Webmaster for IFREMER.

Research topics

The areas of focus include

  • Information systems and telecommunication networks,
  • IT for management,
  • management of marine data,
  • systems engineering for scientific information,
  • operating systems,
  • web publishing.

The research unit participates in the development of the scientific information systems necessary for IFREMER programmes (including those for scientific collaborations) and ensures continuous scientific data services.

It develops operational services for internal projects, management software systems and ensures their proper functioning.