Data Management for Materials Researchers (14/01/2022) - workshop notes

These notes summarise discussions at the Data Management for Materials Researchers workshop, hosted by the Henry Royce Institute on 14th January 2022 (online, UK).  Sponsored by the MIDAS and Lightform programme grants, the workshop was aimed at materials science researchers (from any discipline) who collect, store, analyse and share experimental data associated with their samples. It also welcomed inputs from research data management/data infrastructure researchers and specialists. The workshop shared examples of best practice and current initiatives in the area, with the aim of generating discussion and producing a list of actions to enable better data management practices for materials science.

Improving data management and sharing culture requires the involvement of everyone in the community and so the meeting was open to all, at all career stages, from all institutions and backgrounds. Discussions were moderated to ensure that everyone had the opportunity to contribute.

The workshop was based around discussions of questions, stimulated by short talks from speakers. The following are notes summarising the discussions. They are not a perfect record of everything that was discussed, but nevertheless, it is hoped they prove a useful resource for further activity in this area.

These notes have been compiled by multiple authors, and summarise contributions from many more people, and are owned by the community.

Many thanks to all those who took part in the workshop and contributed to this write up.