Cross‐disciplinary Working Group: InfraDMP

Data management plans (DMPs) are one of many research data management (RDM) tools. Their characteristic of bringing together information about the data centrally over the entire span of the data lifecycle makes them of interest to all researchers and thus also to all disciplines and consortia. In addition, there has been a massive increase in interest among research funders to receive information about the data and it is mapped via DMP templates or checklists.

Therefore, the infra-dmp group (sub-working group of the NFDI common infrastructures section) has set itself the main goals of coordinating and merging the activities of the consortia with regard to the DMP and developing commonalities between the DMPs. In this context, the infra-DMP group focuses on technical aspects such as DMP tools and interfaces as well as on content-related aspects such as DMP templates and the standardisation of content.

To achieve these goals, infra-DMP uses various methods and approaches:

• Quarterly jour fixe for the whole group: 

We organise regular meetings of the whole group to discuss progress, challenges and new developments in the field of DMP. These meetings are used to share information and to collaborate. We are pleased to welcome guests to these meetings to encourage collaboration.

• Formation of Ad Hoc Working Groups (UAGs) on topics of interest: 
  We form special working groups to deal with specific topics related to the DMP like survey for the consortia, communication strategy or quality criteria. These working groups are created as needed and dissolve when the tasks are completed. 
• Incorporating the DMP into sections: 
  We integrate the DMP topic into the different sections and work areas of the NFDI to ensure broad participation and a holistic approach. For instance, there is an overlap of DMPs in training (EduTrain section) as well as in legal aspects (ELSA section).
• Exchange with other DMP working groups:
• First of all, there is the interaction with the Research Data Management Organiser (RDMO) community. Here we maintain a close exchange with the RDMO community in order to benefit from their experience and best practices in the field of DMP and to create synergies.

In addition, we also aim to exchange with the DINI-UAG-DMP to drive joint developments and complement other progress.

By setting up the structure and early interaction with the members of the consortia, we have already been able to focus on some topics and establish six ad hoc-working groups (UAG) to work on the respective topic in more detail. Within this framework UAGs, we have already achieved various results. Initially, we started with three working groups:

• UAG Communication Strategy: We have developed a communication strategy to improve information flow and collaboration within the group. This includes coordinating processes, meetings, and communication channels.
• UAG Concept: We have revised the infra-DMP concept and defined milestones and deliverables to establish clear goals and tasks for the working group. [1]
• UAG survey: To determine the status and relevance of the DMP topic within the individual consortia, we conducted a survey. This provided us with insights into DMP activities and allowed us to collect contact information from representatives of the individual consortia. This facilitates better networking and collaboration within the community. To promote this networking and deepen the knowledge exchange, we organised a workshop. The focus was on harmonising and standardising the templates to ensure a consistent approach.

Over time, other topics emerged that were mentioned by the consortia, such as the modular design of DMP templates, evaluation criteria for good DMPs, or the integration of DMPs into other RDM services.

Not all of them can be addressed at the same time, which is why we were currently able to establish the following working groups:

• UAG Proposal: We have put forward a proposal for the DMP4NFDI service and moved forward with its planning to effectively support NFDI users in creating and managing their DMPs. We will further elaborate on this and propose strategies and possible solutions.
• UAG Quality Criteria: We are in the process of developing a table of quality criteria as a basis for discussion in defining quality standards for DMPs.
• UAG Vision DMP: We are working on a vision for DMPs in the larger context of the NFDI Research data commons, developing a position paper of the consortia. To initialise this paper we are conducting a workshop and will go through several feedback loops.

Within our poster we would like to present our structure in more detail as well as the results of the different working groups and discuss new ideas with you.

[1] Enke, Harry, Hausen, Daniela, Henzen, Christin, Jagusch, Gerald, Krause, Celia, Schönau, Sabine, & Windeck, Jürgen. (2022). Data management planning: Concept for Setting up a Working Group in the NFDI Section Common Infrastructures (0.3). Zenodo. 

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6499327