{"id":7488,"date":"2025-05-08T11:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/forschungsdaten\/?p=7488"},"modified":"2025-05-09T12:06:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T10:06:27","slug":"nutzendentreffen-coscine-nrw-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rwth-aachen.de\/forschungsdaten\/en\/2025\/05\/08\/nutzendentreffen-coscine-nrw-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Advanced User Meeting of Coscine.nrw"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Source: Freepik<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

On April 29, 2025, the second user meeting of Coscine.nrw<\/a> 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\u2014an important building block for the review process of the new DataStorage.nrw storage system.<\/p>\n

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What Exactly Was It About?<\/span><\/h3>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The meeting thus not only provided a platform for information and networking, but also served as a practical introduction to the peer review process \u2013 including direct influence on the development of criteria.<\/p>\n

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The Working Phase: Discussion, Reflection, Development<\/span><\/h3>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 especially for interdisciplinary or completed projects with archiving requirements.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 supplemented by standardized mandatory fields. Good metadata is complete, subject-appropriate, and understandable to third parties.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 for example, whether the data is active or archived.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\t\t