Meeting BALTEX Phase II objectives will require access for research to a large variety of data. Data providers are generally all organisations which create and have property rights for data relevant for the programme. Data users include all organisations or individuals who wish to have access data for BALTEX research. To facilitate data exchange between data providers and data users, dedicated BALTEX Data Centres have been established for specific, frequently required data necessary to meet BALTEX objectives as detailed in the BALTEX Science and Initial Implementation Plans.

CONSIDERING the need for free and unrestricted exchange of information for research between the participants of BALTEX as a condition for success and for the possibility to achieve the objectives of the Programme,

NOTING that the majority of the participants of the BALTEX Programme are situated in member countries of the European Union, that all the participant are situated in countries that are members of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), and, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden are members of the European Cooperation in Meteorology (ECOMET),

NOTING ALSO that BALTEX and GEWEX belong to the WCRP project family, with WCRP being sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Council for Science (ICSU) and UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC),

NOTING FURTHER the WMO Data Policy, practice and guidelines for the exchange of meteorological, hydrological, and related data and products, as embodied in Resolution 40 of the Twelfth WMO Congress 1995 (CG-XII), and Resolution 25 of the Thirteenth WMO Congress 1999 (CG-XIII),

NOTING FURTHER the IOC Oceanographic Data Exchange Policy, in particular Resolution IOC-XXII-6 of the 22nd session of the IOC assembly held 2003,

RECOGNIZING the UN/ECE Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters, dated 25 of June 1998, (the Aarhus Convention), and the Directive 2003/4/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2003 on public access to environmental information and repealing Council Directive 90/313/EEC,

RECOGNIZING ALSO that the definitions of Environmental Information established by both the Aarhus Convention and by the Directive 2003/4/EC on public access to environmental information includes all information handled within the BALTEX Programme,

BEARING IN MIND the Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information encouraging the member states to make available more publicly held information for re-use, and

EMPHASIZING the principle of free and unrestricted exchange of information as paramount for all research and education,

THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION BETWEEN DATA PROVIDERS, BALTEX DATA CENTRES AND BALTEX DATA USERS SHALL BE UNDER THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS:

ARTICLE 1: Definitions

For the purposes of this Data Policy,

1.1 BALTEX Data means any information in written, visual, oral, electronic or any other form:

On the state of the elements of the environment, such as air and atmosphere, water, soil, land, diversity and its components, including chemical substances, and the interaction among these elements;
from the Baltic Sea, it’s drainage basin or an area large enough to run regional Climate models covering the Baltic Sea Basin,
necessary for research purposes to meet BALTEX objectives as detailed in the BALTEX Phase II Science and Initial Implementation Plans.

BALTEX data comprise observed in situ and remote sensing data, model output, and any product of the latter.

BALTEX Data also include all additional metadata information.

1.2 Data Providers are organisations or individuals who create, have property rights for and agree to share BALTEX Data by delivering BALTEX Data either to BALTEX Data Centres or directly to BALTEX Data Users.

1.3 BALTEX Data Users are organisations or individuals who wish to have access to BALTEX Data for their own BALTEX research purposes, which has been qualified as an official BALTEX project. The certification as a BALTEX Data User follows a specific procedure outlined in Appendix 1.

1.4 To facilitate data exchange between Data Providers and BALTEX Data Users, a limited number of dedicated BALTEX Data Centres have been established for specific, frequently required BALTEX Data. By definition, BALTEX Data Centres may either redistribute BALTEX Data to BALTEX Data Users or identify Data Providers for direct data exchange between the latter and BALTEX Data Users.

ARTICLE 2: Exchange of Information

Any Data Provider and BALTEX Data Centre receiving a request from a BALTEX Data User to provide BALTEX Data to be used for research purposes within the BALTEX programme shall execute such a request without undue delay.

BALTEX Data Centres may redistribute BALTEX Data only to BALTEX Data Users.

ARTICLE 3: Charges

Concerning data delivery to BALTEX Data Centres: No financial reimbursement may be charged for the delivery.

Concerning data delivery and re-distribution to BALTEX Data Users: No financial re-imbursement other than delivery costs may be charged for the delivery.

ARTICLE 4: Restrictions

4.1 It is understood that BALTEX data shall be delivered to BALTEX Data Centres and re-distributed to BALTEX data users only for scientific studies designed to meet BALTEX objectives. Commercial use and exploitation of BALTEX data by either the data users or the BALTEX Data Centres is prohibited, unless specific permission has been obtained from the data providers concerned in writing.

4.2 The re-export or transfer of BALTEX data (as received from either data providers and/or BALTEX Data Centres) between a BALTEX data user and any third party is prohibited.

4.3 BALTEX data user shall properly acknowledge and make reference to the origin of BALTEX data, whenever the latter are used for publication of scientific results. A minimum requirement is to reference the BALTEX programme and the respective BALTEX Data Centre, or BATEX Data Centres.

APPENDIX 1

BALTEX Data User identification

An important restriction is that BALTEX data will be passed only to registered BALTEX Data Users. Identification of BALTEX Data Users will be done by members of the BALTEX SSG only, as was decided at the 4^th meeting of the BALTEX SSG (June 1996, Sopot, Poland). A list of registered BALTEX Data Users will be stored at the BALTEX Secretariat and at the BALTEX Data Centres. Registration as a BALTEX Data User is performed upon request of the user and is subject to the following procedure.

Identification of BALTEX Data Users must be on the department level and has to include the name of the Principle Investigator, his/her complete address, the participants at the BALTEX project in question who will work directly with BALTEX data, and a short description of the project the BALTEX data are needed for. A specific BALTEX data user identification form has been established which is mandatory to be used for the identification process. The project description should be short; the entire completed form must not be longer than one page. The request has to be approved by at least one member of the BALTEX SSG preferably from the same country as the potential BALTEX data user. In the course of the project any change of the research group membership has to be notified to the BALTEX Secretariat.

BALTEX Phase II Data Policy

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