Open Data Repository for multidisciplinary scientific community: Bridge of Data repository project developed at Gdańsk University of Technology

Currently, Open Data Repositories are being increasingly used due to the emerging importance of open science and the requirements of grant funding agencies. Despite growing interest, it is challenging to find a repository with a universal standard for metadata description for many fields of science. This paper presents the motivation to identify a universal interdisciplinary metadata description scheme for research data based on the needs of the three major Pomeranian universities (the Gdańsk University of Technology, the Medical University of Gdańsk and the University of Gdańsk) and creating a support infrastructure with a wide range of services – the Open Science Competence Center. The presented experiences may be helpful for other institutions that plan to create an Open Data Repository to avoid re-analysis of already-researched problems, especially if they represent many scientific disciplines such as universities or technical universities. The results of the successful cooperation between universities and their different stakeholders (e.g. librarians, IT specialists, and researchers) show that there are eleven metadata attributes common to many scientific disciplines. Based on the findings, Gdańsk University of Technology was able to develop an institutional Open Data Repository under the Bridge of Data project. The process of implementing the Bridge of Data Repository and its main functionalities is discussed in detail.