On October 10, NIFS announced that it won the Open Data Excellence Award (PODA) at the PICES-2025 Annual Meeting in Yokohama, Japan. 

PICES - the North Pacific Marine Science Organization - is an intergovernmental scientific organization that was established in 1992. Its present members are the Republic of Korea, Japan, People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, and Canada. The purposes of the Organization are to promote and coordinate marine research on the ocean environment and their ecosystems in the North Pacific and adjacent seas, while pushing for the intergovernmental cooperation for climate change and the sustainable management of marine resources. 

The PICES Open Data Excellence Award (PODA) is the new award honouring individuals, groups, or organizations who exemplify the spirit of excellence in open data sharing and international collaboration. 

The Korea Oceanographic Data Center (KODC), the winner of PODA 2025, was recognized its contribution to addressing global challenges and driving the progress in marine science through data sharing. 

The KODC of NIFS has been at the forefront of marine data management and ecosystem establishment through the collection, preservation, quality management, and standardization of marine data on Korean waters as well as the establishment of sharing system for the data. KODC has also been very active on scaling up international collaboration and policies on open data through integrating a wide range of marine data in accordance with international standards, expanding infrastructure to improve data accessibility, etc.

President Choi, Yong-seok said, “The winning of PODA will serve as an opportunity for us to actively produce and share the high-quality marine data in which the researchers in and outside the country can have confidence, pushing ahead with strengthening international collaboration and advanced technologies for data management at the same time.” He also said, “NIFS will faithfully play its role as a global hub for marine scientific research based on KODC.”