Mapping of existing educational resources and initial education and training needs within the Earth system science community (NFDI4Earth Deliverable D1.3.1)

This report summarizes the need assessment undertaken to clarify the research data management-related training needs of the Earth system science (ESS) researchers and maps out existing educational resources on research data management (RDM) and research data analysis tailored for ESS researchers.

To ensure that not only the training topics needed by the Earth system science researchers but also how to make maximum use of the existing and future educational materials are taken care of by M1.3 activities, the needs were gathered and analyzed in two steps. First NFDI4Earth members were surveyed and asked to share their needs and then a focus group discussion with experts in research data management was conducted.

Results of the needs assessment indicated that the ESS researchers need practical research data management training. Open and reusable training materials are needed to facilitate educators and accelerate the RDM training within the community. In addition, existing and coming educational materials should become more findable and be associated with rich metadata. Offering personalized and adjustable learning methods and materials is needed, to encourage researchers to practice RDM in their own scientific work. Developed materials and curricula should be flexible to keep up with fast changes in digital training needs, to enable a long-term service. Currently, a collaboration between similar projects is needed to boost the impact of our work as well as exchange experiences.

In addition to training need assessment, the existing educational resources that can benefit the users of our educational services have been collected. The collected resources are mapped out into three main categories. Firstly, we map our resources to the main four components of the earth. Secondly, we follow the classification of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and map our resources to various subject areas within the ESS. Lastly, they correspond with each stage of the research lifecycle. By implementing a comprehensive mapping strategy, we gain a better understanding of the areas where new material is necessary and when we can modify existing material. This approach enables us to optimize our resources and improve our overall productivity.

The list of collected educational materials covering ESS-related research data management and data analysis is attached to this report. The list also includes detailed information on each resource. This information will be used later to create the NFDI4Earth educational catalog. The outcomes of this report will be used to form and prioritize the NFDI4Earth educational and training activities.