Pipeline Newsletter - March 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 share a blog post written by a member of our team on her reflections of IDCC25, news of a new European project we are joining and links to several interesting events to attend in 2025. 

DCC in focus

IDCC25 Summary

The 19th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC25) took place in The Hague between 17th and 19th of February, with a theme of 20 years back, 20 years forward: lessons and directions in digital curation. Our opening keynote, Marta Teparek, inspired us with her perspective on this theme, and many of talks did so as well. Cliff Lynch in his closing remarks looked at the changes he’s seen in 20 years of IDCC, and the changes we might anticipate. We had attendees from 50 countries across 4 continents, and for 56% it was their first IDCC.

Check out the full summary from IDCC25 webpage.

Community, inspiration, and the importance of looking back to see forward: My reflections on IDCC25 in The Hague

Agnes Jasinska, DCC Research Data Specialist, has written a blog that reflects on her IDCC25 experience. The event emphasised community, collaboration, and progress in digital curation, research data management, and Open Science. As well as sharing her reflections across the programme, Agnes talks about her role as a workshop host and participant. The blog captures the sense of community that IDCC has developed for 20 years.

Read the full blog post on our blog webpage.

European Projects

New European Project – FIDELIS

Establishing A European Network of Trustworthy Digital Repositories 
The FIDELIS project aims to  provide a framework for repositories in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) to support each other not only in becoming but remaining trustworthy and FAIR-enabling (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) over time.  

DCC is one of 24 organisations in the FIDELIS consortium that will (amongst other things) represent its member repositories to key stakeholders on important matters (e.g. policies and funding). Furthermore, the FIDELIS project will upskill repositories and expand the emerging network through an active training, engagement and support programme that includes cascading grants for repositories to implement the solutions delivered by the project.   

The project team have created a survey that will help to support the team in identifying the current needs of repositories in specific areas. The survey can be accessed via EUSurvey online and will remain open until 18 April 2025.

From the community

Building Open Science Skills: Insights from OpenAIRE NOADs

This OpenAIRE report is based on National Open Access Desk (NOAD) discussion rounds and presentations showcasing the variety of training approaches in Europe, addressing challenges and opportunities to overcome fragmentation.  

Access to the full report and blog can be accessed via the OpenAIRE website.

Resource of the month

Data Quality Literacy: A Guidebook

This guidebook is an edited collection based on a seven-session US national forum webinar series on data quality literacy. It covers topics including evaluating data quality: challenges and competencies, quality assurance in data creation, understanding and evaluating governmental data (US and International), commercial data quality issues, data quality: reproducibility and preservation, data quality: evolving employer expectations, and librarians’ role in cultivating data-literate citizens. This book is one of the deliverables of the Institute of Museum and Library Services funded project: Building Capacity of Academic Librarians in Understanding Quantitative Data, Data Quality Problems, and Evaluating Data Quality: A National Forum. 

The ebook can be accessed via the Open Science Framework website.

For your calendar

International Data Week 2025 – Call for Abstracts closing 15 April 2025

The call for abstracts for both SciDataCon and RDA P25 are open! This is your opportunity to contribute to one of the key events of International Data Week 2025. Submit your abstract to have your research featured and join the global science community.

Exclusive IDW 2025 Discount for IDCC Attendees

IDW have a special promotion for IDCC delegates for an extra 10% off IDW 2025 registration when using the code "IDCC" if you book before 7 April 2025. Get in quick! As this promotion is only available for the first 30 delegates.

The HUN-REN Research Data Repository Platform - Online Webinar

14:00-15:00 CET 2 April 2025 

The Hungarian Research Network's (HUN-REN) Data Repository Platform (ARP) is a national repository infrastructure that was opened to the public in March 2024. ARP aimed to create a federated research data repository system that supports the data management needs across its institutional network. This webinar will introduce the ARP, explain the integration of the ARP repository with the ARP Schema Registry and explore the ARP Knowledge Graph and Federated Search components.

Learn more and register via the FAIR-IMPACT website. 

What is a ‘Data Champion’ and how can they support good practice in data management and sharing - Online Webinar

11:00 – 12:30 CET 16 April 2025

As part of the FAIR Implementation Workshop series, designed to help key stakeholders become more familiar with FAIR-enabling tools, approaches and methods, this workshop will cover perspectives from researchers on time spent on data management, costing tools, policy, and funders’ experiences in incentivising data management through policy and support mechanisms. 

Learn more and register via the FAIR-IMPACT website.

AIBIO-UK 2nd Annual Meeting

19-20 May 2025

AIBIO-UK is a BBSRC-funded network that supports engagement between Bioscience and AI communities in the UK. This event will bring together experts, researchers, and industry professionals to discuss advancements in AI and biosciences. It aims to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange across the AI and biosciences community.

Learn more about this conference and register via the AIBIO-UK website.

...and finally

It was inspiring to see the range of responses to this year’s IDCC theme from all of our contributors. Some looked at changes in particular institutions, some at the evolution of particular practices and services, others took a national perspective and others a disciplinary focus. I was frequently torn between fascinating talks in parallel sessions, more so than has been the case for some years. It was also convenient for many of us to be able to segue seamlessly into attendance at FAIRFest which followed immediately from IDCC25 at the same venue. FAIRFest highlighted and celebrated FAIR solutions, services and techniques supported and/or developed by the FAIR-Impact and FAIRCORE4EOSC projects. 

I’m hoping we can bring you news of IDCC26 in the next edition of Pipeline. In the meantime you may wish to join us in Paris this June for the Skills4EOSC event “Building capacity for open science” or in Brisbane later this year for IDW2025 – see above for more information and a special offer for IDCC attendees. 

Kevin Ashley
Director of Digital Curation Centre