Building RDM services through networking and cooperation

Development of repositories (HeFDI) and courses (FOKUS)

Abstract

Digital research data requires efficient infrastructures and services where most of the data is produced: at the universities. The participating institutions are thus facing the challenge of ensuring data storage, findability, accessibility and re-usability as well as fostering data handling competencies. Many university libraries are tackling this challenge and are advancing the exchange of knowledge via collaboration. At the same time, the landscape of research data infrastructures is fragmented and far from building up sufficient and widely used services. As a consequence, most digital data remains unsecured and unused – partly due to the lack of services on site. This article shows how this issue can be addressed collaboratively, based on the common development of research data management (RDM) repositories and courses in two joint projects: HeFDI (Hessian Research Data Infrastructures) allies 11 universities including their libraries, computing centers and research departments, supported by the HeBIS-Verbundzentrale (electronic information and service union of academic libraries in Hessen) with the objective of establishing area-wide infrastructures in a sustainable and innovative manner. We will introduce the process of building networked repositories, being piloted at two locations. In order to achieve the common shared purpose of advancing RDM information literacy, five Hessian universities participate in the project FOKUS (Research Data Courses for Students and Graduates) funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The project introduces students to the handling of research data at an early stage, tailors teaching content according to disciplines and thus complements subject-specific modules on research methodology. The synergy between both projects is considerable: On the one hand, the research data infrastructures established by HeFDI offer an ideal prerequisite for developing and sustaining subject-specific RDM courses. On the other hand, the early introduction to RDM, as accomplished by FOKUS, promotes the use of and demand for these infrastructures.