title: Workflows, tools and services for open and FAIR data at the Julius Kühn-Institute
Creators: name: Senft, Matthias
name: Sinn, Christoph
name: Stahl, Ulrike
name: Kecke, Steffen
Publisher: name: Bundesbehörden und Einrichtungen im Geschäftsbereich des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft (BMEL)
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Forschungsdatenmanagement
subject: FDM
subject: Research Data Management
subject: RDM
subject: Data Steward
subject: 004
subject: 630

description: Expectations placed on the management, provision and archiving of publicly funded research data and data collected by public institutions are increasing more and more due to both scientific and legal obligations. In addition, technical demands based on ever faster growing data volumes and more computationally intensive analyses challenge us on a daily basis. Therefore, an effective and sustainable research data management (RDM) is becoming increasingly important. In order to meet these challenges and to make research data at the Julius Kühn-Institute - Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants (JKI) more open and FAIR the RDM team of the JKI's central data processing department is developing concepts, services and technical solutions. This is our approach. In a first step, we will carry out internal expert interviews among scientists as well as service providers to assess RDM-related processes, actors and needs. By visualizing processes along the data life cycle across the diverse data ecosystem at the JKI (process map), we can identify gaps, develop needs-based improvements, and are able to better orchestrate the collaboration of various stakeholder and departments (including data processing department, research coordination, legal department, data protection, data and analysis experts). Clearly defined processes and contact persons (RDM roadmaps) along the data life cycles facilitate the daily research routine and the management of data at the JKI. In parallel, we are inventorying the JKI data ecosystem. With far more than 100 knowledge portals, databases and management software solutions as well as countless research infrastructures, the JKI possesses a diverse potpourri of tools to generate, manage and provide research data. The aim of the inventory is to compile and analyze these in an inventory catalog in order to identify possible duplications, synergies, but also infrastructures that are no longer used. Furthermore, an evaluation is to be carried out along the FAIR criteria so that conceptual and technical solutions can be developed to make them more FAIR. We will use the results of both surveys to set up an RDM service unit with the aim of networking existing organizational, technical and content-related structures, identifying and setting up structures that are currently lacking, and raising awareness of the topic "RDM", providing training and offering information and advice. The heart of the service unit will be a RDM platform, a first point of contact (a one stop shop) realizing first level support for researchers on the subject of RDM. The basis for this platform is a CKAN catalog that contains structured information on infrastructures, databases and tools at the JKI based on the inventory and will therefore inform scientists where specific data is hosted and managed. Instructions, templates and links on FAIR handling of research data, including contact persons and experts, supplement this information. This catalog can also be used to perform queries (e.g., for reporting requirements on existing databases) or to harvest content in other JKI management tools via interfaces (APIs) or in other portals (e.g., GovData, OpenAgrar) or catalogs of other research institutions affiliated with the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. Since effective and sustainable RDM already begins with the planning of a research project, we support researchers in creating data management plans (DMP). To this end, we are responsible for the JKI-wide introduction of the Research Data Management Organizer (RDMO), a web application to support structured planning, implementation and management of data in scientific projects. A well-designed DMP creates a binding basis for consistent handling of data throughout the research process and facilitates understanding of one's own data as well as coordination within the project. A DMP also helps to identify potential problems at an early stage and to outline solutions for them (e.g. the provision of necessary resources by the data processing department, data duplicates, data loss and security breaches). It defines responsibilities and regulates access rights. Since the creation and maintenance of a DMP is increasingly also a mandatory component of grant applications, we are developing in addition to JKI- also funder-specific DMP templates for RDMO. For this purpose, we use the experience gathered in RDMO pilot projects. In order to further reduce the effort of data entry for researchers (e.g. by pre-filled input fields) and integrate DMPs in the process of research projects, we plan to create technical interfaces to other JKI documentation systems, like the research project management software (FoPro+) and the previously described CKAN catalog. The RDM team at the JKI bundles various expertise from the areas of RDM concept development, inventory, training and consulting, subject-specific data structures and types as well as software development. A close exchange with the digitization officers at the JKI and the embedding in the working group RDM, together with RDM teams from other research institutions affiliated with BMEL, enable the integration of further experts. Approaches and solutions are discussed jointly and synergies can be better exploited. Collaboration in various associations and initiatives, such as the NFDI (FAIRagro), RDM state initiatives (FDM-BB) and working groups (DINI/nestor), provides links to interdepartmental projects.