Aim of the white paper

The white paper written by CESAER’s Task Force Open Science, opens an external URL in a new window is based on a survey (2019) among CESAERs member institutions. TU Wien is member of CESAER, opens an external URL in a new window, which is an association of universities of science and technology in Europe and has published a white paper on "Advancing Research Data Management in Universities of Science and Technology on 13 February 2020. This paper summarizes the state-of-the-art of research data management which has become a focal point in many scientific disciplines.

The aim of the paper was also to show how universities can

1. overcome challenges in implementing strategies and policies
2. provide a suitable infrastructure and tools as well as
3. establish research data management support services. 

Main results of the white paper

The results of the survey show that CESAER members are demonstrating great progress in establishing robust policies, infrastructure and support services around research data management. The survey reflects the challenges and needs to establish a clear provision of good research data management support services, which should involve several offices and departments from across the university, as well as strong support from central administration. Data produced and collected within diverse science and technology disciplines still poses several specific challenges regarding data infrastructure. Further factors of challenges are for example multidisciplinary methods and extensive collaborations in science and technology disciplines. Full implementation of research data management policies and practices still face barriers that require specific considerations.

Which recommendations were deployed by the authors of the white paper to overcome these challenges?

Recommendations for research data management

The white paper presents various possibilities for further development of research data management:

• Develop sub-policies and specific guidelines at faculty or department level that are complementary to university-wide research data management policies.
• Work towards the full implementation of research data management practices in industry collaborations.
• Provide incentives that reward researchers for implementing good practices in research data management.
• Prioritise embedding of data stewards and data managers in research teams and projects, and provide resources and information about external funding opportunities to achieve this.
• Work towards the optimisation of data storage and preservation infrastructure and workflows.
• Engage with the research community at the institution towards building a community of data champions from different disciplines who can share their knowledge and promote best practices in RDM.

Examples for these recommendations are described in detail in the white paper.

Continue reading

Mattias Björnmalm, Federica Cappelluti, Alastair Dunning, Dana Gheorghe, Malgorzata Zofia Goraczek, Daniela Hausen, … Robert Strötgen. (2020, February 13). Advancing Research Data Management in Universities of Science and Technology. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3665372, opens an external URL in a new window

Contact

Technische Universität Wien
Center for Research Data Management
Resselgasse 4 (TU Wien Bibliothek), 1040 Vienna
research.data@tuwien.ac.at

The Team, opens an external URL in a new window