Main Content

Results (Milestones and Epics)

HeFDI started in 2016 as a joint initiative of the Hessian universities, building on a pilot project and numerous local initiatives. Since then, the state initiative has been able to record numerous successes and build up a broad offer for researchers. The following objectives have been accomplished during the first project funding period between 2016 and 2020:

1) Policies for managing research data have been established at the participating Hessian universities

Between 2014 and 2018, ten of the HeFDI universities adopted policies on research data management, which emphasise the importance of research data as part of the academic life. With these policies, the HeFDI universities provide clear orientation for their members and express their commitment to the implementation of responsible and sustainable research data management.
2) All partner universities have developed support services

All universities have set up local service points for research data, in which research data experts, libraries, research institutions and computer centres jointly offer advice, expertise, training and support. HeFDI doesn’t rely only on the cooperation among the project partners, but also on embedding research data management at the individual universities and linking them with existing infrastructure facilities.
3) All partner universities have developed quality-assured trainings

All participating universities offer needs-oriented training for students, doctoral candidates and researchers on relevant topics in research data management. In addition to numerous general trainings, subject-specific training sessions are also organised in close consultation with the researchers. In the area of training and data literacy, the HeFDI universities were also able to achieve some remarkable successes by attracting funding and implementing the collaborative FOKUS project. In addition, two out of five top prizes in the nationwide competition “Wissenschaft im Digitalen Wandel” (English: Science in digital change) were awarded to HeFDI universities (TRUST and RDM in mechanical engineering).
4) HeFDI has advised all partner universities on data strategies and data management plans for third-party funding proposals

One of the most important services in HeFDI is the comprehensive advisory service for scientists. This applies to advice on research data management for third-party funding applications, as well as for ongoing research projects in active data management. There is a remarkably high demand: in 2019, over 300 consultations were conducted at the collaborative universities.
5) All partner universities provide researchers with information on legal issues (licences, data privacy)

The local service points for research data provide basic information on legal issues relating to research data as part of their advisory services. Furthermore, they cooperate closely with the local legal departments and data protection officers in order to be able to provide researchers at the HeFDI universities with direct support on legal issues as straightforward as possible. This cooperation has resulted, for example, in a model data protection concept for research projects, which makes it much easier for researchers to manage their research data. This field of work also shows how much synergy and efficiency can be achieved if there is a strong basis of good cooperation between the participants and bundling of expertise.
6) The HeFDI universities have developed a joint solution for multidisciplinary repositories and are implementing it

Since 2019, three of the participating universities offer institutional research data repositories. In the operation of the repositories, the HeFDI participants rely on a division of labour: Philipps-Universität Marburg (UMR) and the Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUDa) host DSpace-based repositories and ensure technical operation and 3rd-level support. The Justus Liebig University is also setting up an institutional repository solution. Interested universities and memory institutions can have repositories operated by the cooperation of UMR and TUDa. This creates considerable synergies and cost savings. In addition, this joint repository solution gives all HeFDI universities the possibility of implementing a solution for storing and, if necessary, publishing research data at their own institution in a quick and easily accessible manner. They can thus easily comply with the new guidelines of the German Research Foundation (DFG).
7) The HeFDI universities have developed a joint solution for the Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) service

Data management plans are essential for working with research data. To support members of the HeFDI universities, the HeFDI universities have found an efficient and cooperative solution for the supporting tool Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO): The Technical University of Darmstadt hosts RDMO for clients and already offers this service for five HeFDI universities; three further cooperation agreements with HeFDI universities are under preparation. TU Darmstadt also offers this service for RWTH Aachen University and within the framework of the NFDI. Two other HeFDI universities maintain their own instances. All participants are in close exchange and support each other.
8) Researchers are advised on actively used data, i.e. on tools, versioning and licensing

Information will follow soon.
9) The HeFDI universities have co-developed a concept on how to crosslink state initiatives with National Research Data Infrastructure

HeFDI sees itself as a building block of a national research data infrastructure (NFDI). From the beginning, HeFDI has helped shape the debate on NFDI. In addition, HeFDI stakeholders have been actively involved in the establishment of various NFDI consortia and continue their work to ensure that both researchers at HeFDI universities and relevant infrastructure providers engage in consortia that are suitable for the subject matter, whether as co-applicants, as participants or as supporters from the community. HeFDI participates, for example, in the Research Data Alliance (RDA), in the DINI/nestor-AG Forschungsdaten (English: Research Data) and supports the establishment of NFDI consortia. HeFDI is also connected to the other state initiatives and maintains regular contact with them. In addition, there is bilateral contact between locations with close exchange and/or cooperation in research data management. Furthermore, there is an intensive exchange of experience and knowledge transfer on research data management via networks such as TU9. HeFDI is part of the nationwide portal forschungsdaten.info. HeFDI also supports the service catalogue for research data, which is currently being set up.
10) Several collaborative research centres were supported

In the area of active data management, the HeFDI members have reviewed existing services and, taking into account scientists’ demands, identified gaps for which services are to be developed jointly in the coming years. In addition, several collaborative research centres were supported in acquiring their own information infrastructure projects for active data management.
11) Developing an overall concept for the current steadying phase

In 2018, the HeFDI universities jointly developed an overall concept for the current steadying phase, which was positively acknowledged by the DFG's Scientific Libraries and Infrastructures Committee. This makes it the second collaborative project after High-Performance Computing, which has been evaluated positively."

Main Content

Results (Milestones and Epics)

Cooperation Partners