Pipeline Newsletter - September 2026

​​September 2026

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, find out how to submit your proposals for the upcoming International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC27), discover the new GenAI4Earth Project launching this month, explore a recently published International Journal of Digital Curation (IJDC) article on the challenges of maintaining long-term access to scholarly materials in digital repositories, and catch up on the latest webinars, community events and conferences taking place throughout September.

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DCC News

​​Poster and demo submissions for IDCC27 open until 16 October

There's still time to submit your Poster or Demonstration proposal. You have until 16 October to secure the opportunity to join other international presenters at the 21st International Digital Curation Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, from 9-12 February 2027.

• Poster Submissions: Offer a great opportunity to showcase and promote your work through images, interact with others, gather feedback, and exchange ideas.

• Demonstrations: Showcase a working software tool, hardware prototype, or interactive system.

Submit your proposals now!

​​GenAI4Earth Project starting

GenAI4Earth, a new Horizon Europe project worth €9.9 million will start in September.

DCC, alongside colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, is joining a consortium of 17 European institutions to develop trustworthy, reusable Generative AI (GenAI) services within the EOSC (European Open Science Cloud) ecosystem.

Over three years, the project will explore how GenAI can advance Earth, climate, environmental and life sciences by:

• Improving the FAIRness,

• Enabling smarter discovery, access and cross-domain data integration.

• Piloting applications in urban resilience, agro-environmental monitoring and seismology.

• Promoting responsible, transparent and reproducible AI.

• Building skills and capacity through training and engagement.

Bringing together expertise across AI, data science, Earth systems, infrastructure and ethics, GenAI4Earth aims to deliver interoperable and impactful GenAI services for research communities across Europe.

We will keep you updated about the progress of the project.

Training: Self-assessing research data management and FAIR-enabling capabilities
13:00 – 16:00 UTC+0, 9 November 2026 | Virtual

How well is your organisation equipped to support good Research Data Management (RDM) and make research data FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable)?

Join this interactive workshop to explore practical ways to assess your organisation’s current capabilities, identify gaps and plan for improvement. You’ll be introduced to our RISE framework and ACME-FAIR rubrics, with hands-on activities to put the approaches into practice.

The session is aimed at research support professionals, including RDM specialists, librarians, data stewards, research administrators, research technical professionals and senior managers.

Register through Eventbrite.

International Journal of Digital Curation

Examining Persistence of European Open Repository Infrastructure and its Diffusion in the Scholarly Record

George Macgregor, and Joy Davidson

This article examines how consistently repositories and the organisations that run them maintain access to scholarly materials over time. It also considers how a lack of long-term access could affect the scholarly record.

Read the full article on the IJDC website: https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v20i1.1116 

Funded Project 

Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure Showcase comes to Southampton

Save the date! On 25-26 November 2026, the PSDI Showcase will be held in the Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour. Join us to explore the latest developments in PSDI, discover new tools, services and datasets, share experiences across the community, and contribute to discussions that will help shape the future direction of PSDI.

Register your interest: https://www.psdi.ac.uk/event/showcase-2026/

From the community

Deadline for Hidden REF competition 

The deadline for submissions to the 2026 Hidden REF competition is fast approaching. With 27 different categories to enter, the competition aims to recognise everyone who contributes to research, especially researchers and roles who are often overlooked, doing work related to the Research Excellence Framework behind the scenes.

The deadline for submissions is 13 September 2026.

More details on how to enter here: https://hidden-ref.org/hidden-ref-competition/

For your calendar

DRI Webinar series: Getting to know FAIRsharing
15:00 – 16:00 UTC+1, 16 September 2026 | Virtual
Dr Allyson Lister joins us as a guest speaker for this next iteration of the Digital Research Infrastructure webinar series to explain more about the FAIRsharing project. FAIRsharing is a manually curated, community-driven registry of data and metadata standards, interlinked with databases and data policies across all research disciplines.

Register your place now: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/dri-webinar-series-getting-to-know-fairsharing-tickets-1991068232682

CaSDaR’s Hybrid Data Steward Conference 2026
17-18 November 2026 | Hybrid – Online & in Manchester

Join us online or in person in Manchester for this conference organised by CaSDaR to bring together the growing data stewardship community to share progress, showcase impact, and shape the next phase of activity. This event is fully hybrid, so all sessions will be available online and in-person at The Midland Hotel, Manchester. Applications for Lightning Talks and Posters are currently open, with a deadline of 19 October 2026.

Head to the CaSDaR website for more information on registration and submissions: https://casdar.ac.uk/event/casdars-hybrid-data-steward-conference-2026/

DMPonline User Group Meeting
10:30 – 12:00, 27 October 2026 | Virtual 

We will be discussing features and improvements for the DMPonline platform for the 2026-27 period. The meeting is also a lovely way to get to know other members, get involved and express your own views on the proposed developments.

Register your place online: https://dcc.ac.uk/events/dmponline-user-group-meeting-27-october-2026

...and finally

At the end of August, we bid farewell to Kevin Ashley who stepped down as DCC Director after more than 16 years of leadership. Kevin has made an enormous contribution to the DCC and to the wider digital curation community, and we wish him all the very best for his retirement.

Reflecting on his time at the DCC Kevin has shared a personal look at how the digital curation landscape has evolved over the past 16 years, from the growth of institutional research data services and national infrastructures to the increasing importance of international collaboration and open standards. He also reflects on some of the challenges ahead - and the enduring community spirit that has made the field such a rewarding one to work in.

Going forward, Joy Davidson will lead the DCC’s activities. She looks forward to building on the DCC’s work and strengthening our collaborations with the community in the years ahead.

Read Kevin Ashley’s article here. 

DCC Team

Get in touch 

If there are topics you would like us to cover in future issues, or if you wish to share some of your ideas with us please do get in touch.