Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
In April 2025, the RDM team from RWTH Aachen University traveled to Jena, Thuringia, to actively participate in the international community meeting for research data management trainers and data stewards. We have summarized our impressions and insights for you in a short report.
Diverse Program and Highlights of the Fellowship of the Data Conference
The Fellowship of the Data conference took place from April 1 to 2, 2025, in the Rosensäle of Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.
The two-day conference offered a diverse program with keynote speeches, topic-specific workshops, talks, and poster sessions with one-minute “flash talks” in which the posters were presented. In addition, there was an evening program with numerous opportunities for exchange and networking.
Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
A highlight for many participants was the keynote speech by Britta Petersen from Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel entitled “Learning objectives as a starting point for the development of training courses for (future) data stewards.” In her keynote speech, she offered valuable insights into the development of the learning objective matrix for RDM, which has been further developed in its third version based on community feedback and significantly improved in terms of usability. Possible applications of the learning objective matrix and plans for the future were also presented.
An RDM scavenger hunt organized by the Gamification Task Force of DINI/Nestor AG Forschungsdaten provided entertainment and food for thought. Participants had to scan research data QR codes and answer RDM questions to find the solution word and receive a small prize.
Two members of the RDM team at RWTH Aachen University were also actively involved in the two-day event:
Dr. rer. nat. Ute Trautwein-Bruns
Workshop and Presentation: Active Participation of the RWTH RDM Team
Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
Source: Ute Trautwein-Bruns (UB RWTH Aachen)
Dr. Ute Trautwein-Bruns from the RWTH University Library, together with Jens Dierkes, Stefan Kirsch, and Hans März, led the community workshop “Data Stewards, let’s Share: Essential Tasks and How to Overcome Challenges.” The workshop began with a keynote speech on the emerging Data Stewards Community in Germany. Based on the previous Data Stewardship goes Germany (DSgG) workshop in Aachen, the working groups Vision & Strategy, Channels & Yellow Pages, and Challenges were formed. In a World Café format, targeted feedback on the further development of the community was gathered from the participants.
The discussion focused on the challenges in the everyday work of data stewards, questions about communication, and the potential that a coordinated community of data stewards in Germany can unleash.
On the second day of the conference, Dr. Kseniia Dukkart from the IT Center presented a poster entitled “Coscine and Data Stewardship.” The poster aroused great interest among the participants.
It illustrated how data stewards are supported in using Coscine. Three key areas are worth highlighting: the creation of customized metadata profiles, the automation of data workflows, and the linking of services such as ELNs.
Conclusion
The conference in Jena was an excellent event for exchange, networking, and community building for data stewards and the RDM trainer community. The two-day event promoted collaboration and knowledge sharing within the RDM community, provided participants with numerous practical insights and new experiences, and contributed to the development of the Germany-wide RDM network. The conference contributions are available on Zenodo under the title “Fellowship of the Data — International RDM Community.”
Responsible for the content of this article are Kseniia Dukkart, Lina-Louise Kaulbach and Ute Trautwein-Bruns.
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