HMC Hub Matter in the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration

Hub Matter in the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) platform of the Helmholtz Association supports FAIR (meta)data practices in research field Matter, which consists of three subthemes: particle, astro particle and plasma physics, accelerator and detector system technology, and user programs of photon, neutron, and ion beam facilities. HMC Hub Matter activities focus on providing guidance, collecting quality metrics and benchmarking, developing use cases, and implementing and building capacity in the community.

In this poster contribution to the RDA-DE-24 conference, we share some of our approaches and strategies with the RDA-DE community:

Having recognized the need to connect policy and practicability, we have co-developed and improved data guidelines at several Helmholtz centers and beyond, contributing to better management of research data in the research field Matter.

To build community capacity in the use of harmonized semantics, Hub Matter co-moderates a cross-disciplinary, community-driven development process of a method-specific glossary. A web-based user interface allows users to explore the glossary.

Hub Matter provides technical support and community consultation in various use cases from particle physics to ion beam communities. Peer support groups have formed around this technical support and provide a vehicle for collaboration with other initiatives.

To continuously monitor, understand and communicate the culture of data publishing and FAIR data practices in the Helmholtz research communities, we have developed a dashboard approach, unveiling the datasets published by the Helmholtz research communities in a manifold of data repositories. As a first approach to understanding the status quo of FAIR data in our organization, we have adopted the F-UJI framework for assessing these data publications and complemented this approach with manual methods based on the FAIR Data Maturity Model. With this information, we aim to provide support and guidance to research data infrastructures and research communities.