News about research data management

Our year 2025 at a glance

We would like to thank all our colleagues and partners for their excellent and successful cooperation and bid farewell for the Christmas break with a short retrospection.

Graphic with a large "2025" and slightly smaller "2026 - 2027 - 2028" on a line. Between 2025 and 2026, a paper plane is placed in the direction of 2026.

© MissBeauty - stock.adobe.com

First things first: a lot has happened and progressed over the past year, both in our core tasks in the Center for RDM at TU Wien and in various projects at national and EU level. Thanks to these projects, our team has grown once again: Livia Beck and Rafael dos Santos have joined the Shared RDM, opens an external URL in a new window project team at TU Wien, bringing expertise in communication and UX, as well as software development, respectively. Vlad Dancea is providing valuable support for the further development of the open source DMP tool DAMAP, opens an external URL in a new window.

Data repository

TU Wien Research Data, opens an external URL in a new window, the data repository of TU Wien, is gaining increasing recognition and usage: this year, TU Wien researchers uploaded over 280 datasets and established several new communities. To cope with the growing number of requests, the repository team has developed a new review process that has proven effective and been well-received. Other new features include a preview for audio and video files, the display of usage statistics visible to uploaders, and automated access requests for non-public datasets. In September, after a lengthy process, the TU Wien data repository received the CoreTrustSeal certificate. We are very pleased about this achievement, which underlines the quality of this service. The repository's homepage is currently being redesigned to improve user-friendliness and appearance. We look forward to the new look in the new year!

TU Wien DMP Tool

With the further development of DAMAP, opens an external URL in a new window – the open source software on which our DMP tool is based and in whose development employees of the Center for RDM are significantly involved – the TU Wien DMP tool, opens an external URL in a new window is also growing and thriving. In addition to many improvements that are not directly visible to users, there were also some obvious changes last year. The most noticeable was probably the redesign of the user interface. But users will also have noticed the VPN decoupling, the new instructions in the export document, and the direct linkage to the data repository. At the DAMAP level, the number of interested and using institutions throughout Austria is growing. Our DAMAP team regularly hosts open community meetings to address questions and receive suggestions.

Workshops and lecture 

We have offered several workshops on RDM topics to TU Wien employees in 2025. Interest in learning about the creation of data management plans, publishing one's own research data, and using Git platforms remains high. You can find an overview of our upcoming workshops in the training calendar. Additionally, the Introduction to Research Data Management course, opens an external URL in a new window, which we have been offering in the Transferable Skills Catalogue since October 2023, is gaining increasing popularity. This semester, 30 students from various disciplines and levels – primarily Master’s but also Bachelor’s and PhD students – are actively participating in the lecture and exercises, learning together and from one another.

Information material 

In addition to continuously maintaining the RDM website and updating our guides and manuals, we take on a few special tasks each year to bring RDM information to the attention of TU Wien members. A highlight last year was the distribution of our comic "A TU Wien Data Story" as a DIN A3 poster to all research and service units. We are still delighted when we see the comic hanging on a notice board during our on-site visits! Please get in touch if you did not receive one – we still have a few copies left. The campus screens offer another good opportunity to attract widespread attention. Thanks to the service unit PR and Marketing, we were able to regularly advertise our tools and other RDM topics on the screens. We were particularly pleased with the successful implementation of our FAIR quizzes in the form of short video sequences. 

EOSC

TU Wien is a member of the EOSC Association, opens an external URL in a new window and is involved at the local level in the EOSC Support Office Austria, opens an external URL in a new window. In 2025, TU Wien chaired the EOSC Support Office Austria Management Board. The chairmanship was handed over to JKU during the 5th General Assembly of the EOSC Support Office Austria on 18 November 2025 at TUtheSky.

Projects

TU Wien internal projects

On 29 October 2025, the Data Stewards Pilot project was launched to introduce targeted data stewardship at two faculties of TU Wien. The initiative of the Center for RDM is being carried out in cooperation with the Faculty of Mathematics and Geoinformation and the Faculty of Architecture and Planning. The project is featured under the Supplementary Agreements to Performance Agreements and will run until the end of December 2027. With an "Introduction to Research Data Management", the first of six planned training courses on RDM topics took place at the beginning of December.

The aim of the TU Cookbooks project is to initiate the university-wide development and use of cookbooks in teaching and research. Cookbooks are computational notebooks, for example in Python or R, that provide exemplary workflows for solving domain-specific scientific problems. They serve as a starting point for exercises, student projects, theses, or scientific studies. The Center for RDM is contributing to this project by co-developing the "Data as API" concept and data access workflows, where data resides on TU Wien infrastructure, such as the TU Wien Research Data, opens an external URL in a new window repository.

In the University Alliance EULiST, the Center for RDM is the co-task lead for "Synergies and R&I Infrastructure".

Shared RDM Services and Infrastructure

In the Shared RDM Services & Infrastructure, opens an external URL in a new window project, which is supported by the BMFWF and serves the Austria-wide exchange of RDM experiences and the further development of tools and services, the main work is now carried out in thematic working groups. However, the monthly online meetings with all project partners, as well as the face-to-face project meetings and public events, are also important for networking and joint RDM development in Austria. The Expo 2025, opens an external URL in a new window and the FAIR&AI Symposium, opens an external URL in a new window are particularly noteworthy in this context. Both events were organised by the cross-project Cluster Forschungsdaten, opens an external URL in a new window. They were very well attended and facilitated an intensive exchange. 

Infra-EOSC projects within the Horizon Europe framework

The Center for Research Data Management is still active in the OSTrails, opens an external URL in a new window project, while the Skills4EOSC, opens an external URL in a new window and EOSC Focus, opens an external URL in a new window projects were completed in 2025. A series of events occurred in this context throughout the year. These included an international Winter School with a strong focus on strategic and technical developments in the EOSC environment, several hackathons as part of OSTrails, where practical work was carried out on tools, workflows and services, and general assemblies, which serve as a forum for exchange between projects, stakeholders, and the EOSC community. This was complemented by project completion events, where results, lessons learned, and perspectives for the further development of skills and governance were discussed. A large EOSC symposium and the aforementioned national EOSC Support Office Austria General Assembly, which brought together both the European context and the Austrian perspective on EOSC topics, also provided a framework for the content.

Further exchange with colleagues

Exchange with national and international RDM colleagues is essential for our work and the further development of our tools. Specialist conferences and meetings of international project teams and working groups outside of EOSC are also a good opportunity for this, which we actively and gladly take advantage of. In 2025, we participated in the following conferences and events:

2026

We look forward to continuing our collaboration and wish you happy holidays and all the best for the new year!

Contact

TU Wien
Center for Research Data Management
research.data@tuwien.ac.at