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CARDS

CARDS – Collaboratively Advancing Research Data Support

Background

The CARDS project with a duration until 10/2026 aims to develop and expand tools, services, and training offered to researchers of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) on the topic of research data management (RDM). The project is conducted at all four BUA partners, with the work package led by the BIH (QUEST Center and Research Group Medical Informatics) aiming to conduct concrete data management activities in research groups affiliated with Berlin-based Clusters of Excellence. The ultimate goal of all work packages is to support researchers with demands regards RDM and to support high-quality data management practices at the BUA institutions, leading to an increase in data availability and the efficiency of data use.

Objectives

The CARDS project includes four work packages:

  • WP1: BUA Customised Research Data Management Organizer (led by TU Berlin, Britta Steinke, University Library) will equip the "RDMO" software with BUA-specific extensions to improve data management planning for BUA researchers
  • WP2: Data Stewardship in Clusters of Excellence (led by Charité-BIH, Evgeny Bobrov, QUEST Center, and Fabian Prasser, Research Group Medical Informatics) implements concrete RDM measures according to needs
  • WP3: RDM Competence Development (led by FU Berlin, Sibylle Söring, University Library) aims to expand RDM training and competence offerings and anchor RDM expertise in institutions
  • WP4: Model Development for the Use of Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELN) in the BUA (led by Fadwa Alshawaf, Humboldt University, CMS) analyzes the requirements of BUA partners regarding ELN software and develops an architectural and operational model for its implementation

Methodology

The data steward will be embedded in project teams belonging to Berlin-based clusters of excellence, and will conduct RDM activities there. These subprojects will typically last between one and three months. In addition to these embedded activities, the data steward will coordinate exchange of experiences and best practices between other data managements experts based at Clusters of Excellence, and will extensively document how or her experiences so that a maximum of learnings can be derived.

Expected Results / Implications / Perspectives

The work package led by Charité-BIH will improve data management practices in concrete use cases at Berlin-based Clusters of Excellence. This will lead to data being more usable within the groups and/or more readily available for external reuse. The long-term impact of the project will be learnings on how to most efficiently support researchers at BUA in their data management, thus contributing to further strategic planning. In particular, the project will help to answer questions regarding the necessary skillsets for effective data stewardship (generic vs. disciplinary) and functional organizational arrangements (RDM expertise at institutional, faculty, team, or other level).

Further Information

The project was preceded in 2021-2023 by the project "Concept development for collaborative research data management services" (abbreviated as "BUA-FDM"). As part of this project, a large survey of researcher practices and needs regarding RDM was performed. The results of the survey at Charité have been published in an interactive form online (only available in German). All outputs of the project are available online via a Zenodo "community page". There is a short description of the CARDS project available on the BUA website.

Selected Success Stories From the Cards Project

  • Selected Success Stories From the Cards Project

    The CARDS project (Collaboratively Advancing Research Data Support) supports researchers from different clusters of excellence in improving the handling, documentation and reuse of research data.
    The success stories below illustrate how hands-on data stewardship can help address concrete challenges in everyday research.


    Structured data management: Big Mouse Data (Science of Intelligence)

    In the Big Mouse Data project, CARDS helped to establish clear structures for folders, metadata, and database for large multimodal datasets. Through Entity-Relation (ER) diagrams, a consistent metadata schema, and accompanying consultation, the foundation was created for long-term, machine-readable data storage. This makes the project much more scalable and prepared for future analyses and long-term data storage.


    A data protection-compliant workflow for clinical image data (Matters of Activity)

    CARDS helped to bring all stakeholders together for the Matters of Activity cluster to find a secure workflow for pseudonymizing PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication System) data in compliance with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and Charité guidelines. Additionally, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and a practical guide to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and EEG (Electroencephalography) data were developed to support working with the data in future.


    Reproducible research through clear data workflows (NeuroCure) 

    In the NeuroCure project REPOSE, CARDS provided support in developing SOPs for the secure handling of research data. A method compliant with data protection regulations for handling pseudonymized data was implemented, and a Git-based script repository and initial test VRE workflows were established. This allows new team members and partners to work with the data much more quickly and efficiently.


    Automation instead of manual transfer of laboratory data from PDFs (NeuroCure)

    For clinical research projects (NEMO-R and REPOSE), CARDS developed a Python-based approach for the automated extraction of laboratory values from PDF reports. This eliminates the error-prone manual transcription of data. The solution saves time, increases data quality, and can be adapted to other report types in the future.


    Securing knowledge when people leave: Offboarding template 

    CARDS has developed a structured offboarding and knowledge transfer template to prevent the loss of data and process knowledge when employees leave the organization. The template was presented in workshops, iteratively improved, and prepared for public reuse. It helps research groups to securely store data, code and documentation. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16917258 


    Increasing the visibility of research data (Science of Intelligence)

    CARDS improved the metadata tables and automated the display of data sets on the Science of Intelligence project website. Like existing publication lists, data sets are now presented in a structured manner. This makes research data easier to find and increases its visibility. https://www.scienceofintelligence.de/research/data/ 


    Addressing legal uncertainties in research data use (NeuroCure)

    CARDS worked closely with research teams to clarify the distinction between patient and research participant data, and to provide guidance on the publication of pseudonymized data. This helped identify legally sensitive practices early and align data handling procedures with applicable data protection requirements.

Contact

  • [Translate to englisch:]

    Prof. Dr. Fabian Prasser, FAMIA

    Head of Medical Informatics Group

    Center of Health Data Sciences, BIH @ Charité

    Phone:
    +49 30 450 528 781
    E-mail:
    fabian.prasser[at]bih-charite.de
    Address:
    Postal address: Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin
    Office: Rahel-Hirsch-Center for Translational Medicine, Luisenstr. 65, 10115 Berlin