Source: Freepik
On April 29, 2025, the second user meeting of Coscine.nrw took place. The event not only offered exciting insights into current developments in the research data management (RDM) platform, but was above all interactive. In a creative group work phase, participants jointly developed specific criteria for evaluating storage space requests—an important building block for the review process of the new DataStorage.nrw storage system.
What Exactly Was It About?
Coscine is increasingly establishing itself as a central component of the RDM infrastructure in North Rhine-Westphalia. Researchers can apply for storage space for their projects via the new DataStorage.nrw storage system. In future, a science-led review process carried out by RDM staff at DH.NRW universities will decide whether an application is approved or rejected. To ensure that this process is fair, transparent, and technically sound, criteria were jointly developed during the user meeting: What makes a good application? Where are the pitfalls? And how can the review process be structured?
The participants came from various DH.NRW universities and are members of the RDM staff. Many of them will themselves become reviewers as soon as Coscine is introduced as an RDM service at their institutions.
The meeting thus not only provided a platform for information and networking, but also served as a practical introduction to the peer review process – including direct influence on the development of criteria.
The Working Phase: Discussion, Reflection, Development
In an intensive group work phase, the participants discussed various dimensions. They were asked to contribute to each of the five stations (project relevance, storage space requirements, metadata, workflow, miscellaneous) and write down their thoughts.
A successful application begins with a clear project reference: In addition to formal information, a comprehensible and technically sound description of the project is particularly important in order to make the storage requirements comprehensible – especially for interdisciplinary or completed projects with archiving requirements.
When it comes to storage space requirements, realistic, well-founded information is essential. Applications should not be oversized out of caution, but should reflect actual needs. A data management plan (DMP) can be helpful here, especially for larger or long-term projects.
The quality of metadata was also discussed at length: Generic profiles are often insufficient. Instead, subject-specific profiles, ideally developed with NFDI consortia, should be used – supplemented by standardized mandatory fields. Good metadata is complete, subject-appropriate, and understandable to third parties.
Another point concerns the workflows involved in handling the data. Applications should clearly show how data is stored, versioned, and processed, and at what point in the data lifecycle the project is – for example, whether the data is active or archived.
Finally, the importance of seemingly small details was emphasized: documentation of data origin, understandable file naming, or references to software and devices used. This information is crucial for the long-term usability of the data and should not be omitted in order to convey a coherent overall picture.
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- Source: Own illustrations
Outlook: The Guidebook for Reviewers
The results of the group work are now being incorporated into a guidebook that will be published on Zenodo. The aim is to provide reviewers with a sound, comprehensible, and transparent basis for assessing storage space requests. The Service Management Team is currently evaluating the findings gathered at the user meeting. Based on this, the guidebook will then be developed jointly in close cooperation with RDM staff.
Exchange With the Coscine Team
At the end of the meeting, the Coscine developers joined in for an open Q&A session with the participants. This question and answer session provided an opportunity for specific queries, technical details, and feedback from practical experience. The direct exchange between users and developers was considered particularly valuable by all sides and helped to create a common understanding of the next steps in the development process.
Conclusion: More Than Just a Workshop
The second user meeting once again demonstrated how valuable direct exchange between RDM staff is. The participants not only actively contributed to the workshop, but also provided important input for the further development of Coscine and DataStorage.nrw.
We would like to thank everyone involved and look forward to the next Coscine.nrw user meeting.
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Responsible for the content of this article is Arlinda Ujkani.
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