eLTER PLUS Deliverable D5.1 - Site and platform operators training module report
Creators: name: Rasilo, Terhi
name: Dor - Haim, Shayli
name: Matteucci, Giorgio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024

description: eLTER Sites and LTSER Platforms, distributed across Europe, make up the backbone of the foreseen eLTER Research Infrastructure (RI). The Site and Platform Coordinators (SPCs) are persons with different roles (Primary investigators (PIs), site managers, site coordinators, LTSER Platform managers, etc.) taking responsibility for Site or Platform operations. To support the SPCs, a Site and Platform Forum (SPF) was established by eLTER PLUS WP2 in 2020 as a forum for interaction and collaboration. The SPF organises frequent virtual webinars and has also organised several physical training events. With these webinars and events, the SPCs are informed about relevant technology developments and emerging tools, eLTER Standard Observation variables, new methods and workflows, site management, visualisation, data analysis, stakeholder engagement, transversal skills, and implementing the whole system approach at their Sites and Platforms. In spring 2024, approximately 550 people are listed in the SPF list and the participation in webinars has frequently exceeded 100 attendees.

SPF is also organised in working groups (WGs), aiming at collecting and summarising the opinions of SPCs and taking care that relevant aspects for SPCs are considered in the SPF and in the current and future development of eLTER RI. Among the WGs, Training was early on recognised as one of the most important issues for the SPCs. The Training working group was established during the first Sites and Platforms Forum (SPF) meeting (13 Jan 2021). Training needs were collected through two onlinequestionnaires, performed during and soon after the pandemic period.

Data management and handling was considered one of the most relevant topics in the SPC training and one in-person workshop was organised (Lyon, France, 7-9 February 2023). The first in-person meeting of the SPF was also organised (Lunz, Austria, 2-5 October 2023).

The Training working group of SPF has met virtually several times, discussing the potential training needs of SPCs, and brainstorming the ideas of what kind of training could be provided and who could be the potential trainers. So far, the working group provided 12 training webinars, with wide attendance. Webinars were recorded, to make the information available to those who could not participate. The recordings were further edited to produce training videos which are available through eLTER Youtube channel. In addition, a training section was added to the eLTER website (https://elter-ri.eu/elter-training). The training has been categorised under specific topics to facilitate findability of the materials. In general, the feedback on organised training events has been positive.

At the time of the Deliverable completion, investigated interest for topics for future trainings included: “Data sharing through the eLTER services”; “Publishing datasets and data papers”; “Data sharing including harmonisation and storage”; “Interaction with stakeholders”; “Funding opportunities”