As pollen influx data becomes available it should be incorporated in the EPMP database. This database will be managed from the University of Oulu (Thule Institute) and, because of the unpublished nature of the data it will contain, will only be accessible to EPMP contributors. All contributors will be able to see everyone's data but will only be able to recall and use their own. The database format will mirror that of the European Pollen Database (EPD) so that it is easy to compare modern and fossil pollen. Data will be submitted as Tilia spreadsheets and the metadata will be as provided on the forms in the original guidelines. The existence of the database from the initiation of the project offers several advantages.
These are:

1. It will provide an easy, standardised format for saving data from which each contributor can recall his/her own data to work on as required.

2. It will be possible to see at a glance the spatial distribution of data for any one year so that individual contributors can assess their own results in comparison with those of their colleagues.

3. Should an investigator, for some reason, stop pollen monitoring, then even one year of results (too small a sample to warrant publishing on its own) will still have the potential of being included in any analysis and publication covering the whole of Europe.

4. By adding data annually, as it becomes available the tiresome task of assembling and submitting big data sets for which the oldest years may be inadequately documented, is avoided.