OGS is recognised as the Italian National Oceanographic Data Centre (OGS-NODC) within the International Oceanographic Data Exchange System of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) since 27/6/2002. OGS as part of the IOC's network of National Oceanographic Data Centres has designated responsibility for the coordination of data and information management at national level. The oceanographic database covers the fields of marine physics, chemical, biological, underway geophysics and general information on Italian oceanographic cruises and data sets. The data center manages large sets of marine and ocean data, originating from our institute and from other parties in our country, in a variety of data management systems and configurations.