Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI): Getting to Know CESSDA

This webinar is part of a series showcasing the digital research infrastructure projects and communities in the UK and beyond.

19 August 2026 |

Digital Research Infrastructure (DRI) Webinar Series - Overview

Starting in February 2026, we launched a series of webinars to showcase the digital research infrastructure projects and communities in the UK and beyond in collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Join us to learn about state-of-the-art initiatives that aim to advance research tools and techniques, foster collaboration and data sharing, and accelerate discoveries across a range of academic disciplines and sectors. And if you work on a research infrastructure project and are interested in being a guest speaker, please email us at info@dcc.ac .uk.

Digital Research Infrastructure Webinar Series: Getting to Know CESSDA

Wednesday 19 August 2026

Research support professionals increasingly need to guide researchers through a complex landscape of research data management (RDM) services, repositories, standards, and digital research infrastructures (DRIs). This webinar introduces CESSDA ERIC as a key European research infrastructure for the social sciences and demonstrates how its services, tools, training resources, and community initiatives can support researchers throughout the entire research data lifecycle. CESSDA provides training resources such as the Data Management Expert Guide (DMEG) and Data Archiving Guide (DAG), as well as services that enable data discovery, reuse, citation, and long-term preservation.

Participants will learn how researchers can discover data through the CESSDA Data Catalogue, use multilingual controlled vocabularies such as ELSST, and benefit from community-driven developments in metadata standards, repository technologies, and trustworthy digital repositories. By the end of the webinar, attendees will be better equipped to signpost researchers towards appropriate European research data services and infrastructures that enhance data management, sharing, discoverability, and reuse.

About our guest speakers

Irena Vipavc Brvar is a senior research data specialist and Director of Administration at the Slovenian Social Science Data Archives (ADP), University of Ljubljana. She has over twenty years' experience in research data management, digital preservation, and Open Science. She's actively involved in CESSDA, contributing to training activities, guidance development, and capacity-building programmes for researchers, data stewards, librarians, and research support professionals with expertise in FAIR data, metadata standards, data citation, and repository certification. She's a member of the OPERAS Scientific Advisory Committee and co-chair of RDA Node Slovenia.

Alen Vodopijevec is Head of IT at CESSDA ERIC, based at the CESSDA Main Office in Bergen, Norway, where he's responsible for CESSDA's technical roadmap and strategy, IT processes, and service management across the CESSDA Main Office and its national Service Providers. Before joining CESSDA in 2024, he spent two decades at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb, working on national research infrastructure and repository initiatives and helping establish the Croatian Social Science Data Archive (CROSSDA). His expertise spans interoperability, research data management, and Open Science infrastructure.

Agenda (all times BST)

14:00 - 14:05 Introduction and housekeeping
14:05 - 14:45 Introduction to the CESSDA and its services
14:45 - 14:55 Q&A
14:55 - 15:00 Close

This free webinar is open to all. Please reserve a ticket to receive joining information. The session will be recorded.

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