Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RDA Europe (Research Data Alliance - Europe 3)
Reporting period: 2017-03-01 to 2018-02-28
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is rapidly building the social and technical bridges that enable open sharing and re-use of data on a global level. The RDA Europe project - the European plug-in to the global Research Data Alliance activities – ensures that European research, industry, e-infrastructure and policy stakeholders are all aware of its achievements, engaged with and actively involved in global RDA activities and advancing the use of its results. European domain scientists and data scientists are driving a series of working and interest groups, generating outputs from RDA, and this momentum needs to be maintained and even increased. A collaborative web platform, that is being continuously developed and improved, is widely used by RDA members and the coordinating administration. RDA Europe looks for innovative ways of facilitating the take-up and implementation of RDA outputs in Europe, both in academia and industry, and continued to develop and maintain the RDA web-based collaboration framework. Further steps have been taken in steering, planning and implementing the sustainability of RDA. This RDA Europe 3 project was mainly built on successful previous consortia, but has strengthened its anchoring in policy, scientific and industrial uptake to drive forward RDA Europe objectives that are all grounded in technological excellence and innovation and have clear international ties. RDA Europe partners are very actively involved in the strategic planning, implementation, marketing & communication of RDA through the governance bodies of RDA. The RDA Europe project actively contributed to the Digital Single Market strategy, to make data FAIR and to advance the EOSC ideas.
A cornerstone of the RDA Europe 3 project was to provide a crucial networking forum for developing cross-disciplinary and global data sharing practices. RDA Europe 3 created various fora for different stakeholders to become aware of RDA's achievements and to provide input and feedback to RDA. Examples include the Science Workshop series addressing Europe's top scientists, the Synchronisation Assembly (SyA) where all Europeans that have taken on some responsibility in RDA, such as co-chairs of working and interest groups or members of the various RDA boards, etc., interact, the Group of European Data Experts (GEDE) bringing together representatives from major European research infrastructures with RDA core personnel and the topical workshops addressing the computer science research community specifically. In addition, RDA Europe 3 has set up a funding scheme for collaboration projects to accelerate testing and adoption; globally known are more than 75 adoptions of RDA outputs for an increasing number of WGs/IGs with strong contributions from European stakeholders (https://www.rd-alliance.org/recommendations-outputs/adoption-recommendations(opens in new window)). 15 recommendations have been endorsed by RDA (https://www.rd-alliance.org/recommendations-and-outputs/all-recommendations-and-outputs(opens in new window)). The project has further established the European Support Team (EST) that operates a simple helpdesk system, runs the RDA Europe Early Career Program, has established a successful webinar series, organises training events and that has developed the RDA Atlas of Knowledge (AoK) – a database that provides a high-level view on RDA's working and interest group activities and outcomes and that ties in with global efforts to map the RDA landscape and to facilitate navigation through the spectrum of RDA activities. Last but not least, the RDA Europe 3 project supported the global organisation by providing various communication and dissemination channels including the RDA website, newsletters, social media activities and more.
"In addition to continuing and expanding on the activities mentioned above RDA Europe 3 intensified its interaction with industry using various channels, specifically in the Internet of Things domain where the experts understand that they have increasing data challenges to solve and where in particular the notions of ""clear identity"" and ""digital object orientation"" seem to be of growing interest. In this context, relationships to the International Telecom Union (ITU), The Digital Object Naming Authority (DONA), the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and other relevant initiatives have been strengthened. All these measures target the increase of RDA's impact ranging from sociological changes, to scientific and technological advances, all the way to improved policies and industrial measures aiming at making data more FAIR (findable - accessible - interoperable - reusable). Combined, these measures contribute to Open Science, Open Innovation and more generally to opening up Europe's research to the world."