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.