Proposed Organizational Structure of CEON
Structural Map

The internal organizational structure and flow of information proposed for CEON at the initial CEON planning meeting in Stockholm, October 2003.

JAG & Steering Committee

A Joint Advisory Group (JAG) collectively and independently, through its individual members, advises an elected CEON steering committee. The JAG's membership is comprised of a sponsor and end users panel, an independent advisory board, a panel of representatives from networks and sites partnered to CEON, and a station managers' forum.

The CEON steering committee oversees and directs CEON activities through a secretariat, which could be divided between North America and Europe. The secretariat has direct connections with data center/s, working groups and integration team/s. The principal purpose of the integration team/s is to provide a function of quality assurance whereby the spatial and temporal integrity of measurements and the potential for integration between parameters, working groups and informational data is reviewed and methods of data collection adjusted accordingly. It is likely that modelers, statisticians and mathematicians will populate this group.

Working Groups

Data collected from CEON observational platforms is directed to working groups and data center/s following screening by the quality checking group/s. CEON observational platforms can most easily be defined as any platform that can provide environmental data congruent to the CEON mission.

Multi-Tier Tasks

Themes, questions and hypotheses are generated both within CEON and via input from the JAG through the sponsors and end users panel and the independent advisory board. It is important to note that TEK and representation of the indigenous peoples of the north are not compartmentalized, but instead, dispersed throughout the entire network to ensure adequate representation, input and involvement of TEK at all levels within CEON.

Similarly, acquisition of funding, education and outreach, and connectivity to extra-CEON activities occurs at multiple tiers within CEON. Transfer of knowledge between entities within CEON will be enhanced through network-wide conferences, working meetings of different sub-groups and collaborations between sub-groups. Other cyber infrastructures will also facilitate transfer of knowledge and information within and from CEON.

Benefits of this Conceptual Organization

  • There is 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' flow of information through the JAG and the station managers' forum respectively.
  • There are 'self checking' protocols via the input of the independent advisory group and the data integration and quality checking team/s.
  • The network can encompass new observation platforms, scientific themes and technologies relatively easily.
  • Through the acquisition of funds from multiple sources to support CEON activities at a variety of tiers, the structural stability of CEON will be increased. CEON will be free to function independently of programmatic themes and other constraints as the dynamic needs for environmental observations in the north develops.