Title: Cost Benefit Analysis of the Marine Environmental Data & Information Network (MEDIN)
Client: MEDIN
Year: 2019
Service area(s): appraisal & evaluation
Country/region: UK
eftec team: Ian Dickie, Jake Kuyer, Rob Daniel
About the project:
eftec estimated the costs and benefits of the Marine Environmental Data & Information Network (MEDIN) activities to improve access to marine data.
The benefits MEDIN provide include efficiency gains because of easier access to data; reduced duplication of marine surveys; improved data management; improved community working and better decision-making.
We worked with our delivery partners ABPmer and MEDIN to design and implemented a survey with current and future targeted stakeholders to quantify and value these benefits.
Our study shows that MEDIN provides net benefits of over £52m for a 10-year period, with a benefit to cost ratio of 8:1. These results demonstrate the valuable service that MEDIN provides as well as indicating where MEDIN can focus future efforts to maximise this value.
Client feedback:
“As a collaborative network that makes it easier to share and manage marine data, MEDIN had previously struggled to quantify the benefits that its services bring to the UK economy. In 2019, eftec worked with MEDIN stakeholders to carefully carry out the first ever Cost Benefit Analysis of MEDIN. eftec provided MEDIN with a professional service that they adapted to meet the needs of our specific project.” - MEDIN, 2020
"MEDIN is liaising with the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to use this work as a contribution to a bigger project "Valuing Ocean Observations"." - MEDIN, 2020