The global science community is facing an unprecedented data environment that never existed before. With Industrial 4.0 (IR4.0) new generations of sensors, instruments and platforms extend the range of exploration and speed up the frequency of data acquisition. We are able to archive and retrieve massive datasets in digital formats. The wide coverage of Internet and World Wide Web services allow researchers to share datasets and to communicate with colleagues efficiently both in the office and from the field.

In the domain of Geoscience, significant progress has been achieved on open data, including those emanating from private enterprises, government agencies and community-built data portals. Data resources on the Web provide convenience for geoscience researchers, and lay out the platform for cross-disciplinary collaboration and new scientific discoveries.

Methods and skills of both data management and data analysis are needed for conducting science within the inspiring and complex data environment of today. Ocean Geoscience, which was established in 2015, has both these methods and skills.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated enormous uncertainty around the world.

“The new normal is not clear yet, but we need to start moving toward it.”

All these developments will affect not only Ocean Geoscience but everyone else. Predicting a global trade disruption in early 2020, Ocean Geoscience made a head start and took the opportunity preparing for the uncertainties ahead. For some time now, we have been working hard to transform and deepen our capabilities. Developing plans for our future business, investing heavily to upgrade our staff, promote digitization, building our innovation and R&D capabilities.

Nobody can predict what exactly the world will look like after COVID-19 but however things turn out, these strategies will stand us in good stead. By making the most of our head start, Ocean Geoscience believes these steps will enable her to survive the crisis better, and bounce back faster and stronger.

Our people are our greatest asset. Ocean Geoscience has taken emergency measures to help the employees come through the crisis together. We are also constantly thinking how to improve our social safety nets. Sustainable social support will give our employees confidence to cope with the uncertainties and to make changes to their lives under the new norm.

Once in a while, leaders and organisations are severely tested, as we are now. Some buckle under pressure and emerge from crisis diminished. Others grow more determined as they face fearful odds, discover reserves of strength in themselves, and emerge from crisis transfigured, renewed. And that has been our Ocean Geoscience story: in crisis, we have never failed to wrest opportunity from danger.