Joana Beja

Joana Beja is a senior scientific data officer at the Flanders Marine Institute Data Centre. Her main activities are developed around EMODnet, as EMODnet Biology coordinator and part of the EMODnet Central Portal Technical team. Joana’s expertise is in physical oceanography data management, an activity developed during more than 20 years and that included the coordination of national projects as well as providing data management for several international projects. Since 2019, this expertise has expanded to the Marine Biology domain in an international context.

In the VLIZ team, Joana is also involved in EMODnet Ingestion and EMODnet Seabed Habitats, ensuring a liaison between these projects and the VLIZ team.

Joana has extensive field work experience and has joined several research cruises in the North Atlantic, Arctic and Southern Ocean, collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams in data collection and data analysis. Joana is involved in other international initiatives, like the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS), as part of the Data Management Sub-Committee and co-chair of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion group, and Scientific Antarctic Research (SCAR) as part of the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Leadership group and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS), as a member of the Vocabulary Infrastructure Project Team and co-manager of the European OBIS node, EurOBIS. Joana has also become involved with SUN Fleet, an international community of practitioners, researchers, industry representatives, and stakeholders engaged in the advancement and application of remotely operated and autonomous surface vehicle technologies in ocean observing that is endorse by GOOS, the Global Ocean Observing System.