Because good research needs good data

Delivering Research Data Management Services MOOC*: Week 5 recap

Eirini Zormpa, TUDelft | 12 October 2021

The fifth week of the course focused on the development of roadmaps for delivering Research Data Management (RDM) services. This ties in with the content of Week 2, during which participants reflected on the gaps in their institution’s RDM offering. Moderation was provided by me (https://www.tudelft.nl/en/library/research-data-management/r/support/data-stewardship/contact/eirini-zormpa) and Alex Delipalta (https://www.dcc.ac.uk/about/staff/alexandra-delipalta).

The course started with case studies on how three universities in the UK, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Southampton, and the University of Surrey, developed their own roadmaps. Participants also learned how to go about creating a roadmap for their own institution and were then asked to do just that! As was established already in Week 2, different institutions are further along in their efforts to offer RDM services, which was also reflected in this week’s assignments.

Finally, participants completed one last assignment, which was to write a 250-word blog post about the next steps their institution should take to deliver RDM services. Of course, these next steps were varied: Some participants indicated that they will conduct surveys to establish what researchers at their institution need, others will work on the creation of an RDM unit. They all stressed the importance of collaboration of different stakeholders, including support staff, researchers, and executive staff.

Thank you again to everyone for taking part in this course! From the facilitators team, we hope it has been helpful and we look forward to seeing what you do next regarding RDM at your institution!

* A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. Our MOOC is available on the FutureLearn platform and is free to all.