News

RDM support: wrap-up of 2024 & expert tips

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December 2, 2024

In 2024, the Research Data Management team supported many researchers. In this article, we look back at our main activities and highlight our plans for 2025. Also, there are some tips that we’d like to share.

Highlights of 2024

In 2024, we:

  • published the WUR Software Management Plan template, the WUR Data Management Plan for MSc students and the Yoda@WUR data curation guidelines, which are all available in the WUR-RDM-support community in Zenodo.
  • held a refresher course for 45 (new) data stewards at WUR.
  • registered 246 datasets in Pure that were published by WUR authors and provided support with dozens of dataset reviews.
  • Prepared the infrastructure for Yoda's Publication Module and complete 'Yoda's experience' survey among data stewards.

  • Organised a new edition of the Wageningen Model and Data Day for data stewards, modellers, researchers, software engineers, model stewards and many others to interact. There were in total 205 participants and 28 (hands-on) sessions. Watch the Aftermovie:

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  • Answered many questions (data@wur.nl), in close collaboration with POs, ISOs, (coordinating) data stewards, and legal support.
  • Reviewed just under 300 data management plans, mostly in DMPonline.

Expert tips

Did you know that:

  1. each research group or each chair group has a dedicated data steward, who is the first point of contact for questions on research data management (RDM). Do you want to know your data steward is? Check out the data steward list on the intranet;
  2. each Science Group has an Information Security Officer (ISO) and a Privacy Officer (PO)? They can help you determine the data classification and advise you in dealing with personal and sensitive data. Check out the ISO intranet page and the PO intranet page;
  3. research funders ZonMW and NWO allow you to use the WUR data management plan (DMP) template, and that Horizon / EC / ERC funded projects don’t make their own templates mandatory. The WUR DMP template is better aligned with policies and possibilities at WUR. We strongly recommend using it;
  4. DMPonline is a handy tool to write your DMP. Check the RDM support manual on how to get started in DMPonline and the filled in WUR DMP example.

Plans for 2025

We are far from done. We look forward to supporting you with RDM matters in 2025 and we plan to:

  • Update and shorten the WUR DMP template.
  • Create an RDM workflow with cheat sheets.
  • Organise the 2025 edition of the Wageningen Model and Data Day.
  • Organise a new refresher course for data stewards.
  • Provide Yoda training for students, researchers and data stewards.
  • Work very hard on launching the publication module in Yoda.

We wish you wonderful holidays and an even better New Year!

Shauna, Irene, Joost, Ignacio, Nika, Koen, Joris & Amalia