Pipeline Newsletter - December 2025

Welcome to the DCC Pipeline newsletter!

Our monthly newsletter features news updates from the community, information about DCC work and services as well as important dates for your calendar. We hope you enjoy!

At a glance...

In this edition of Pipeline, we announce that the IDCC26 workshop bookings are open, launch a training course returning for a second time after running earlier in September and share an interesting suite of tools from the Research Data Alliance.

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DCC News

IDCC26 Workshop Bookings Open! 
Join us on Monday 16 February 2026 for 8 interactive workshops led by members of our community, ahead of the main IDCC conference days. The workshops will be delivered in-person, covering topics including; enabling FAIR workflows, exploring paths to sustainable infrastructures, and evolving data management plans.    

Explore the full workshop programme and book your place via our website.

UK Data Service Sponsoring IDCC26
We are delighted to announce that the UK Data Service will be sponsoring our conference in Zagreb next year.   

The UK Data Service is the UK’s principal repository for economic, population, and social research data, hosting the nation’s largest trusted digital archive. 

Learn more about the work of the UK Data Service on our sponsors webpage.

DMPonline Upcoming Events
Save the dates for key DMPOnline events, open to current users and those interested in learning more about our platform: 

IDCC26 Workshop
Our DMPonline team will be co-hosting a workshop a with RSpace at the IDCC26 Workshop day. 'Workshop 4- Role of vertical interoperability in times of austerity' will focus on the key role of vertical interoperability to enable FAIR data workflows. Book your place at our IDCC26 workshop and access the programme via Eventbrite.

Community Meeting 
The Community Meeting will be hosted on 26 May 2026. The day will feature talks from international speakers across different time zones, to suit our international community. Full programme will be announced closer to the event. 

User Group meetings: 

• 10 March 2026, 11:30-13:30 UTC
• 08 September 2026, 11:30-13:30 UTC
• 08 December 2026, 11:30-13:30 UTC

Online Training | Developing Research Data and Software Management Policies
We are partnering with Research Data Alliance (RDA) Europe for the second time, to host a series of virtual training sessions designed to help organisations develop or update their research data and software management policies. This four-part series includes three virtual workshops and an optional drop-in session offering hands-on learning, with tailored advice and direct feedback from experienced DCC and RDA trainers. 

Taking place in March 2026, the course is ideal for anyone in a research support role who is responsible for or interested in developing new research data policies or updating existing ones. Each organisation can enroll up to three team members when purchasing a place on the course. 

Book your place via our Eventbrite page.

International Journal of Data Curation

Evaluating the efficacy and impact of a pilot programme for FAIR data stewardship at a UK university
Published last month in our International Journal of Digital Curation (IJDC), this article, written by Zuzanna Zagrodzka, Jenni Adams, Richard Campbell and Helen Foster, uses a case study from the University of Sheffield to consider how institutions can support researchers to deeply integrate FAIR  practices beyond basic compliance. The authors contrast what they see as poor provision for FAIR data stewardship in general in the UK, contrasting this with the position in the Netherlands. They emphasise evaluating such projects to demonstrate their benefits and advocate for widespread adoption in the UK. 

Download the conference paper on the IJDC website.

Resource of the month

RDA Knowledge Base 
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) has launched a suite of tools that help RDA users find, annotate, and publish RDA-related materials efficiently. Developed as part of the RDA TIGER project, the Knowledge Base supports working groups, and anyone engaged with RDA outputs by making data, guidance, and publications easily discoverable and reusable. 

The tool can be accessed via the RDA website.  

From the community

Transitioning to Openness: Why Open Infrastructures matter for Responsible Research Assessment
A new report by the CoARA Working Group “Towards Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment (OI4RRA)” explores how research systems can move from closed, proprietary tools to open, transparent, and community-governed infrastructures. 

The report findings, based on insights from 17 experts across 11 countries, charts a practical roadmap for reform from shared governance and sustainable funding to ethical accountability and policy coherence, showing why openness is essential for trust and fairness in research assessment. 

The full report can be accessed via Zenodo.

For your calendar

Save the date for the webinar series: Showcasing the Digital Research Infrastructures in the UK
4 February 2026 | Online 
DCC is hosting a series of community webinars showcasing the Digital Research Infrastructures in the UK. Featuring guest speakers from each research infrastructure, the webinars aim to explore the infrastructure tools and services and highlight how they can support researchers and the Digital Research Technical Professional (dRTP) community. The first webinar will focus on the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) and will be hosted on February 4th. Registration will open in January.

20th OpenAIRE Graph Community Call
11:00-12:00 CET - 17 Dec 2025 | Online
OpenAIRE are hosting a new series of calls that dive into the makings and workings of one of the world’s largest Scholarly Knowledge Graphs where attendees can give live feedback suggestions to the OpenAIRE team. 

Register your place via the OpenAIRE website.

Call for proposals open for Open Repositories 2026
8-11 July 2026 | Trondheim, Norway
Hosted in Trondheim, Norway across three days, the 2026 LIBER Annual Conference brings together a community of research libraries to explore the role they can play in safeguarding the fundamental rights and values in an evolving and uncertain world. There are four submission proposal options that will remain open until 5th January 2026.

To explore the different proposal options and learn more about the conference, visit the LIBER conference.  

DCC support in the festive season
DCC staff will be taking an extended break during Christmas and New Year. The general DCC helpdesk email (info@dcc.ac.uk) and IDCC helpdesk will be unmonitored from close of business on December 19th until our return on Monday 5th January 2026. The IJDC helpdesk will be unmonitored from December 12th to 5th January 2026. 

The DMPonline helpdesk will be monitored during this period and staff are on call to resolve serious issues. If you need assistance, please contact the helpdesk at dmponline@dcc.ac.uk.

...and finally

I promised more news of our latest recruit in the last edition of Pipeline. I’m delighted to welcome Carolina Mayen Huerta who joins our team of research data specialists whilst Clara and Dominique are on maternity leave. Carolina’s career has been about making data more useful and accessible for researchers and policy makers. As an example, her work as a Senior Geospatial Consultant at the World Bank included the development of GEEST a tool which integrates legal, demographic, environmental, and infrastructure data to assess women’s economic inclusion. Carolina has been quick to familiarise herself with DCC work and is already making useful contributions in a number of areas. 

Kevin Ashley, DCC Director