Education & Training (EduTrain)
"Data literacy from the start!" — This is the guiding principle of Section EduTrain, emphasising the relevance of building data competence across all areas of research and higher education, and opening a path towards cross-disciplinary sustainability of Research Data Management (RDM) and a contemporary data culture.
The "data literacy from the start" paradigm encompasses:
- Further development of scientific methods and good scientific practice
- Establishment and improvement of data quality as a resource for value-generating knowledge and sustainable solutions to societal challenges
- Development of a better understanding of data for more efficient, sustainable, and cross-disciplinary reuse
- Establish a federated helpdesk network providing a shared infrastructure (ticketing system, knowledge base and catalogue)
A key prerequisite is adherence to the FAIR principles and ensuring accessibility, transparency, and reusability in both open and protected data spaces at national and European level.
The coordinated, needs-oriented, and targeted teaching of data competence is of great importance for the competitiveness of Germany as a research location. In Section EduTrain, actors from university teaching and research, libraries and computing centres, as well as non-university research institutes and state-level initiatives, work closely together to promote the cultural shift towards FAIR data.
Section Goals
- Creating a common catalogue for teaching materials as a knowledge base (see DALIA)
- Disseminate data literacy and FAIR data concepts at all education and competency levels: Bachelor, Master, PhD, PostDoc, Data Stewards, Professors
- Developing generic, institutional, and discipline-specific Train-the-Trainer concepts and RDM content
- Defining competency parameters for implementing domain-specific curricula
- Integrating further stakeholders such as professional associations, specialist societies, industry, and others
Section Leadership
| Role | Name | Institution | Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spokesperson | Dr. Jens Dierkes | University and City Library, University of Cologne | (May 2026 -) |
| Deputy Spokesperson | Dr. Nanette Rißler-Pipka | Max Weber Foundation - German Humanities Institutes Abroad | (May 2026 -) |
| Spokesperson | Prof. Dr. Sonja Herres-Pawlis | RWTH Aachen | (2021 - 2026) |
| Deputy Spokesperson | Prof. Dr. Peter Pelz | Technische Universität Darmstadt | (2021 - 2026) |
Working Groups
| Working Group | Contact | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Target Group and Needs Analysis | Britta Petersen | Competency-level analysis, persona development |
| Materials Inventory | Andrea Polywka, Jonathan D. Geiger | Collecting and FAIR-ifying existing training materials |
| Modular and Scalable Concept | Timo Mühlhaus, Kerstin Helbig, Jan-Michael Haugwitz | Modular competency canon, curriculum guidelines |
| Teaching Materials and Knowledge Base | Sonja Herres-Pawlis, see DALIA | Comprehensive material formats, query wizard, DALIA platform |
| Training Formats and Certificate Courses | Konrad Förstner, Birte Lindstädt | Formalised certificate courses for Data Stewards |
| Quality Assurance and Evaluation | Sonja Herres-Pawlis, see DALIA | QA concept, user feedback, train-the-trainer model |
| Networking and Outreach | Janna Neumann | National and international harmonisation of RDM training |
| Error Culture in Science | Bernhard Miller, Theo Bender, Maximilian Frank | No-blame culture, handling errors in research |
| RDM Helpdesk Network | Martha Stellmacher, Marcus Schmidt, Judith Engel, Kilian Hensen, Marina Lemaire, Cord Wiljes | Connecting NFDI and institutional helpdesk teams |
Further Information
- Working Group Charter (shared by all WGs): https://zenodo.org/records/6478698