CREAF

The Project, coordinated by the STSI of the Catalan Regional Government (Generalitat de Catalunya) , is funded with the contribution of the European Commission – Interreg III B MEDOCC Program. . IDE-Univers lasts 18 months starting from September 2006.

Within their projects and activities Universities and Research Centers process a huge quantity of data with a spatial reference concerning different topics . However, this information is rarely known outside the academic arena where it has been produced, leading to dispersion of knowledge and waste of resources. The same data could in fact be useful to other people, such as researchers of other Universities, private institutions or simple citizens carrying out investigation on the same territory.

IDE-Univers aims at facilitating access and exchange of such data offering to users a potential source of information and to researchers an opportunity for disseminating their own scientific results.

The Project is developed within an international framework, i.e. Interreg III B MEDOCC Program , supporting the transnational cooperation among Mediterranean countries.

IDE-Univers offers a Thematic Spatial Data Infrastructure with an architecture compliant with the guidelines and standards provided by the European Initiative INSPIRE * .

In particular metadata follow ISO 19115 e ISO 19139 standards. 
Access to data is granted through a Geo-portal. A Catalog Service (CAT) compliant with OGC offers searching facilities in the metadata, while data themselves are published through OGC Web Map Services (WMSs) and Web Feature Services (WFSs).

*Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14th March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE) was published in the official Journal on the 25th April 2007. The INSPIRE Directive will enter into force on the 15th May 2007.