Research Data Day

A Look Back at the Programme of RWTH Aachen University and FZJ for Research Data Day 2024 in NRW

Research Data Day in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) sheds light on the latest developments and services concerning research data management (RDM). It also increases the visibility of RDM as a topic, its stakeholders, and the services they offer, as well as promoting networking. This year, Research Data Day took place on 12 November 2024. The motto of the event was “Into the data garden: make your research bloom”. Research Data Day is organized by the state initiative fdm.nrw together with many institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The morning programme, which was broadcast simultaneously across multiple locations, was a real success. This was followed by an afternoon programme on site.
State initiative for research data management – fdm.nrw – 4th Research Data Day in NRW (in German)

Networks dedicated to research data from RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich jointly organized the afternoon programme at FZJ with many stakeholders from Aachen and Jülich. There were active contributions from Jülich subinstitutes (IAS-9, IBG-5, IBG-1) and the “Information” hub of the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC). Jülich, Aachen, and regional scientific networks as far as Cologne are generally very active in the field of research data management. They also develop tools and services that can be used by their employees to facilitate data management.

• Corporate Development at FZJ – Research Management (UE-F) – Digital Change
• Central Library (ZB) of Forschungszentrum Jülich – Research Data Management
• University Library of RWTH Aachen University – Research Data Management
• IT Center of RWTH Aachen University – Services – Research

Under the tagline “Successful research networks: growing together with data”, participants in the local afternoon programme at Jülich discussed RDM and tried out tools and services at four separate tables dedicated to specific subjects. The afternoon programme shed light on the consultancy services of the data competence centre DKZ.2R, the cloud solutions of the data competence centre de.KCD, the HMC tools Somesy and Cookiecutter, and the CadetRDM software for data management in the simulation sciences. All participants were able to bring their own posters, which were the subject of lively discussion during the subsequent get-together.

• DKZ.2R: Reducing Data-Related Hurdles in Research
• de.KCD: Weathering the Storm: Managing Research Data in the Cloud
• HMC: Organizing Your Software Metadata with Somesy and FAIR Python Cookiecutter
• HDS-LEE: Help track and version control with CadetRDM

The event organizers would like to thank all researchers, data managers, and interested parties from infrastructure and science who made it to Jülich this year. It was a good scientific exchange, which we would like to continue with all interested parties on 11 November 2025 at the 5th Research Data Day in NRW.

Your contacts for research data day at Forschungszentrum Jülich