Introduction

One of the objectives of the ESPON 2020 Database is to provide an easy access to data from ESPON 2020 activities. These data should be policy-relevant, non-redundant and reliable and cover the wide spectrum of results which were produced by ESPON projects. In order to do so, data must be carefully selected and tied with precise metadata.

This manual will guide you, step by step, through the delivery of your project data to the ESPON 2020 Database Portal.

Data delivery is an interactive process which requires the involvement of (1) the ESPON Service Provider (hereafter the ‘Project’) which produced data and is bound to deliver it; (2) the ESPON Database team (hereafter the ‘DB team’) which guides Projects into the delivery process, and (3) ESPON EGTC which controls the exhaustivity and integrity of the data delivery.

Two distinct delivery channels

Projects delivers data according to two distinct channels:

•  ‘Main Data’ which covers the most original and policy relevant results produced by ESPON Projects. It is based on the concept of ‘key indicator’ and on standard territorial nomenclatures. It is supplemented with well-structured metadata. Data as well as metadata goes through a strict quality check procedure;
•  ‘Other Data’ which covers all other statistical and geospatial data produced by ESPON Projects. It is supplemented with light metadata.

Figure 1 describes the two channels, the type of indicators which they are built upon, the type of output which they generate and the final location of these data on the ESPON DB Portal.

Figure 1 Two data channels: ‘Main Data’ and ‘Other Data’

The first task of the Project is to decide which data will be delivered according to which procedure.

The ‘Main Data’ channel

The ‘Main Data’ procedure aims at the collection of ‘key indicators’ which reflects the end-results of ESPON projects. A key indicator is:

• an innovative policy-relevant indicator
• presented in a standard territorial nomenclature
• whose calculation process is well-documented (possibly with other so-called ‘background’ indicators) and quality checked
• which covers (or aimed to cover) the entire ESPON space (EU28+4) or a policy-relevant portion of the ESPON space (macro-regions, transnational cooperation areas aka “TCA”)

Each Project is advised to select up to 4-5 key indicators which reflect the end-result of the project. ‘Key’ indicators should be delivered together with their associated ‘background’ indicators (see definitions below).

‘Key’ (as well as ‘background’) indicators, sources and methods are delivered through the ESPON 2020 Data and Metadata Upload System (hereafter ‘the Upload interface’).

‘Key’ and ‘background’ indicators are made available through the “Search and Download” tab of the ESPON 2020 Database Portal.

The delivery process is further described in the ‘Main Data’ section of this manual.

The ‘Other Data’ channel

The ‘Other Data’ procedure aims at the collection of any other data/indicators which the Project produced. Together with indicators uploaded as ‘Main Data’, ‘Other Data’ elements are gathered in a ‘Project Archive’ which is made accessible through the “project archive” tab of the ESPON 2020 Database.

One or multiple elements can be uploaded by the Project on the Upload interface. Each element contains one or several files. Each element is complemented by a description which is added by the Project through the Upload interface (metadata).

An ‘Other Data’ element may contain:

• statistical data in .xls format for which an “Other Data” template is available
• spatial data, preferably as shapefiles (for vector) or GeoTIFF (for raster).

The delivery process is further described in the ‘Other Data’ section of this manual.

Timing and schedule of the delivery process

The delivery process occurs at the latest during the last eight weeks before an ESPON project ends.

Weeks 1-2-3-4 correspond to the preparation of the delivery process. The first contact is initiated between the DB team and the Project under ESPON EGTC supervision. The Project identifies a Data Manager (hereafter referred to as the manager) who acquaints him/herself with the ESPON 2020 DB concepts. In parallel the DB team identifies a Data Reviewer (hereafter referred to as the reviewer) who will be in charge of guiding the manager. The project data manager, with the support of the reviewer should provide answers to the following questions:

• Which data do I need to feed in the ESPON 2020 Database?
• What kind of data is it? What is the best way to provide it to external users? (Main Data vs. Other Data)
• How do I structure my datasets? Which indicators were involved in the calculation of my key indicators?

Weeks 5 – 6 – 7 are dedicated to the delivery of the data through the Upload interface.

Week 8 is dedicated to last adjustments and the validation of the delivery by ESPON EGTC.

Figure 2 Schedule of the delivery process