What is NOAA data governance?
NOAA data governance provides the leadership and policy framework to enable coordinated and consistent data management across the agency. Data management ensures data integrity and scientific integrity as the essential process by which data produced by observing systems, procured through data buys, and produced through science and operations are documented, preserved, and made available to users. Data realizes its value when it is used to make decisions and without sound data governance and management, the optimal value of NOAA data is lost.
The NOAA Data Governance Committee (DGC) was established to ensure the effective, efficient, and consistent management of NOAA's data assets. The DGC provides overarching leadership and strategic direction for NOAA-wide data activities, ensuring that data are treated as strategic assets maximizing their value and the return on the agency's investment. The DGC supports NOAA’s role on the statutorily required Commerce Data Governance Board.
The DGC is chaired by the NOAA Chief Data Officer and is composed of the Assistant Chief Data Officers (ACDOs) representing the NOAA Line, Staff, and Corporate Offices (see NOAA organization chart here). Advisory members play a key role in providing subject matter expertise on critical areas or from vital service centers across NOAA. The DGC reports to the NOAA Observing System Decision Board and the NOAA Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council. The DGC establishes working groups or task teams to focus on specific enterprise data challenges topics.
Purpose and Scope of the Data Governance Committee
- Strategic Alignment: The DGC ensures that NOAA’s data policies and practices are aligned with NOAA's mission, strategic plans, and relevant federal mandates.
- Policy and Standards: The DGC is responsible for establishing, reviewing, and approving NOAA-wide data management policies, standards, and best practices. This ensures data are managed consistently across all Line Offices and staff offices.
- Decision Making: The DGC acts as the authority for resolving NOAA-wide data management challenges and provides recommendations to parent bodies and NOAA leadership on data requirements, needs or solutions.
- Promoting Data Quality and Trust: The DGC champions NOAA’s efforts to improve the quality, accessibility, usability, and integrity of NOAA's data, maintaining and building trust among NOAA’s vast data users, partners, and stakeholders.
- Workforce Development: The DGC facilitates data management workforce development across NOAA to maximize effectiveness, avoid duplication of effort, support data innovation, support the adoption of new methods and technologies and a data driven culture.
2026 DGC Priorities and Strategic Direction
- NOAA Data Strategy: Rapid refresh of the NOAA Data and AI strategies to provide concise, integrated goals and objectives emphasizing the rapid adoption of technology including commercial cloud and AI tools to enhance the mission and streamline data management workflows. Ensure alignment with the DOC and Federal Data Strategies.
- Enhance data access and usability: Advancing a NOAA data governance model that better enables the management of NOAA as findable, interoperable, and re-usable data assets in support of the mission. Building and advancing tools, including AI, to support data discovery, access, and usability.
- Policy Implementation and Guidance: Advancing NOAA data policy and implementation guidance for NOAA’s public access, open data, AI and information quality requirements, including updates to NOAA Administrative Orders and procedural handbooks based on statute, federal policy, executive orders, and administration priorities.
- Commercial Data: Provide support for the governance and efficiency of commercial data procurement, management and use across the agency.
- Observing Portfolio Support: Provide support to NOAA observing portfolio management through expertise and input on data management, public access, privacy, and information quality requirements including the true cost of sustained data management (e.g. storage, preservation, access/egress, and use in cloud systems).