Rachele, please introduce yourself.
My name is Rachele Bordoni. I work as Project Manager at ETT S.p.A.
Tell us about your professional and academic career before becoming part of the OCEAN ICE community.
I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and a Master’s degree in Marine Ecology. I then completed a PhD in Marine Ecosystem Science, focusing on habitat suitability of key Mediterranean ecosystems and the interactions between marine and coastal environments, particularly in terms of ecosystem services.
During my Master’s and PhD studies, I gained extensive experience working with large environmental datasets and discovered how challenging it can be to access the data you need without active fieldwork. Following my PhD, I joined ETT, where I work on data management across multiple projects, developing pipelines and tools that make data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) and openly available to everyone.
What do you do within OCEAN ICE?
Within OCEAN ICE, ETT leads Work Package 7 (WP7), which focuses on data management. In collaboration with SOOS, we design and oversee the flow of data to and from WP1–6 and project stakeholders. Our work ensures that all data management processes are compliant with, and interoperable across, existing infrastructures and integrators such as EMODnet, CMEMS, and SOOS, avoiding duplication and enabling rapid adoption and availability of project data. The goal is to make all data produced within OCEAN ICE fully compliant with the FAIR, TRUST (Transparency, Responsibility, User focus, Sustainability, and Technology), and INSPIRE EU principles, ensuring openness, reliability, and accessibility.
What have you enjoyed about OCEAN ICE so far?
I have joined OCEAN ICE recently, but what was clear from the beginning was the passion that partners and researchers bring to their work and the tremendous effort everyone puts into making the project valuable. There is excellent collaboration, a very positive environment, and I am learning a lot from being part of the team.
Tell us about a skill or trait unique to you that you would like to share?
A trait that might be unique to me—though I really hope it’s not, so I don’t feel too alone in this—is that I’m very curious and love learning new things. I’m so curious that I’ve become an expert at starting new hobbies and then quickly moving on to the next one before truly mastering any of them! I’ve gone through phases of playing guitar, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, ceramics… and the list could easily go on.
Stay tuned on our social media channels (X, Mastodon, LinkedIn and Bluesky) for more of the series of OCEAN ICE 'Researcher in the Spotlight' articles.