bw2FDM

The project Baden-Württembergisches Begleit- und Weiterentwicklungsprojekt für Forschungsdatenmanagement bw2FDM consisted of four main areas:

• Coordination of the four Science Data Centers (SDCs) in Baden-Württemberg’s cross-sectional topics
• Further development of the information platform forschungsdaten.info
• Consultations and trainings in the field of research data management (RDM)
• Organising the conference series E-Science Tage

One aim of the project was to assist the SDCs with building up their structures as well as with addressing joint questions. This included networking activities among the SDCs, linking them to the project bwHPC-S5, and increasing their visibility for the research communities in Germany and Europe. In particular, bw2FDM complemented the SDCs' activities especially  by establishing working groups on cross-cutting topics, such as legal questions, external presentation, business models, metadata, training/education.

Furthermore, bw2FDM has advanced the information platform forschungdaten.info. Here, the discipline-specific menu has been expanded and further initiatives have had the opportunity to present themselves in the section on RDM in the German-speaking countries. Towards the end of the project, more than 30 RDM specialists from the German-speaking countries worked together in the platform’s editorial team.

Moreover, the project offered trainings and webinars, training material created in that context was provided as OERs, for example on forschungsdaten.info. The project’s activities’ visibility was ensured through systematic networking and outreach via conferences and publications. The project-specific software Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) was expanded for compiling data management plans.

Last but not least, bw2FDM organized the E-Science-Tage 2021 and 2023, and thereby supported the nationwide exchange of knowledge and experiences related to RDM. The results and presentations were made available as open access publications.

Project partners:

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Heidelberg University
• University of Konstanz

bwFDM-Info II

The project bwFDM-Info II was launched in December 2017. In comparison to its predecessor bwFDM-Info I, the project’s focus shifted from the development of the information platform forschungsdaten.info to publicity-related activites and the establishment of sustainable operations. Furthermore, the project had the task of coordinating the country's e-science projects, effectively initiating an efficient structure in Germany. Here, the aim was to interlink the universities’ decision makerswith expert committees for research data and the academic users in such a way that meaningful processes for initiating state-wide cooperation in the field of research data could be created. Due to the good response at the E-Science-Tage 2017 in Heidelberg, bwFDM-Info II organized a successful follow-up event in March 2019 with the main topic Data to Knowledge.

Project partners:

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Heidelberg University
• University of Konstanz

bwFDM-Info I

Since November 2016, bwFDM-Info I has been providing material for researchers on forschungsdaten.info to enable them to inform themselves about research data management and to orient themselves on best practices. Furthermore, the project actively supported academics with concrete help and tools for all challenges in handling academic data. The offerings were based on the needs identified in the state project bwFDM-Communities. In 2017, the project initiated the E-Science-Tage in Heidelberg.

Project partners:

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• Heidelberg University
• University of Hohenheim
• University of Konstanz
• University of Tübingen

bwFDM-Communities

The project consisted of a contact phase, a demand assessment phase, a clarification phase and a finalization phase.

• Contact phase: During the contact phase, the key accounters identified a contact person for each research group at the respective universities which handles research data and may be looking for support.
• Demand assessment phase: In this phase, the concrete needs of each group were identified. In order to achieve this, intensive dialogue concerning the status  quo, with regards to scheduled and/or expected developments and available solutions was necessary here.
• Clarification phase: During the clarification phase, issues of general importance and general requirements were identified. This was done based on the user stories and story maps as well as on the results of the working groups which had been organised previously..
• Finalization phase: The finalization phase focused on the analysis and assessment, summary and documentation of the project results. Based on a comprehensive needs assessment, detailed recommendations for concrete measures (e.g. infrastructure expansion, development of technologies, knowledge transfer etc.) to boost Baden-Wurttemberg as an academichub were developed.

Project partners:

• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
• University of Freiburg
• Heidelberg University
• University of Hohenheim
• University of Konstanz
• University of Mannheim
• University of Stuttgart
• University of Tübingen
• Ulm University