SEAwise report on requirements for transparency and quality control month 12-24, September 2023

The SEAwise project works to deliver a fully operational tool that will allow fishers, managers, and policy makers to easily apply Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM). This SEAwise report describes some improvements to the common protocol for producing openly available, quality-assuring data and methods used in SEAwise. The data and methods used in SEAwise are all collected, processed, and stored in connection with the project. Making quality assured data openly available is a key priority in SEAwise in accordance with the FAIR principles: Ensuring that data are findable, openly accessible, interoperable and available for increased re-use. In this report some improvements are suggested to achieve this.

SEAwise data are divided into four types:

· Quantitative data are organised in the  SEAwise quantitative metadatabase, listing primary data sources and responsible parties for these

· Qualitative data from interviews and workshops are organised in the  SEAwise qualitative metadatabase, listing primary data sources and responsible parties for these

· Software code will be available at the SEAwise Github after the first year of the project.

· Reports and other publications (scientific and otherwise) are available on the SEAwise website.

All data and models are evaluated using the SEAwise Output Quality Assurance Process. Model evaluation is conducted both in SEAwise, by presentation in existing ICES groups and by dedicated SEAwise/ICES workshops to produce guidance on best practice.