Making scientific data more accessible to decision-makers, experts and the public is at the heart of the IAEA’s efforts to increase transparency and enhance international knowledge sharing. To this end, the IAEA recently launched the IAEA Data Platform, which provides centralized access to a wide range of publicly shared datasets on a single platform. Through the platform, data can be maintained and standardized more efficiently, and data users such as Member States, researchers and scientists can visualize and download data in various formats.
The platform facilitates access to a range of different types of data, such as the Incident and Trafficking Database, which serves as the IAEA’s information system on incidents of illicit trafficking and other unauthorized activities involving nuclear and other radioactive materials outside regulatory control, and the Modaria dataset, an international compilation of soil-plant concentration ratios of radionuclides and stable isotopes in the tropical environment.
The IAEA Data Platform categorizes datasets according to three main themes: Nuclear Safety and Security; Nuclear Techniques and Applications; and Safeguards and Verification. In addition, it contains useful tools such as filtering options and tags for different datasets, and an activity dashboard that tracks changes in data over time. These tools facilitate a better overview of the data and make datasets more accessible to a wider audience.
One of the unique features of the new platform is the Application Programming Interface (API) option, which allows data to be accessed through the system. “While the platform provides an overall improved and more user-friendly experience for accessing IAEA data, the ability to access datasets remotely is particularly valuable as it ensures that users always have access to the latest data,” said Clinton Tak, Assistant IT Innovation Engineer at the IAEA. Tak added, “The API option enables researchers and scientists to analyze data and create visualizations through common tools such as PowerBI, Tableau, Python and MatLab.”
The launch of the IAEA Data Platform is an important step in migrating all IAEA data publicly shared into a common repository, thereby facilitating understanding and access to all available IAEA databases, increasing transparency and strengthening data management practices.
