MicroB3 Sampling Groups Workshop, EMBL-EBI, 5-6 July 2012

The EMBL-EBI, Hinxton, UK, organized on July 5th and 6th 2012 the Micro B3-WP4 Sampling Groups Workshop. Participants from thirteen Institutes (BAS, CNRS, CIESM, CSIC, EMBL-EBI, EMPA, HCMR, JacobsUni, MARIS, MARUM, MBA, UOXF, VLIZ) discussed current and best practices in marine sampling. Variation & consistency of information components captured at 8 sampling sites (L4 UK, Roscoff France, Helgoland Germany, Naples Italy, Crete Greece, Blanes Spain, Rothera Antarctic Peninsula and VLIZ Belgium) has been addressed leading to evaluation of critical, desirable and useful aspects of sampling processing and data processing. Submission and archiving of marine data in oceanographic (SeaDataNet, Pangaea) and genomic (ENA) repositories have been reviewed and legal aspects of the Micro B3 project objectives outlined. Outcomes of this successful meeting will be very helpful for further development of the Micro B3 Standards and Interoperability structures.