Template for the NFDI4Biodiversity & GfÖ Winter School

This publication showcases the NFDI4Biodiversity & GfÖ Winter School 2022, a transformative one-week course program designed to equip young scientists with essential Research Data Management (RDM) skills tailored for biodiversity and environmental data. Organized by the NFDI4Biodiversity consortium, the Winter School fostered data literacy and promoted sustainable research practices within the ecological and environmental science communities.

The publication offers an overview of the Winter School's structure, curriculum, and highlights. Throughout the course, participants engaged in a series of expert-led lectures and hands-on practical sessions, delivered by renowned academics, data specialists, and research institutions in the biodiversity domain. These sessions covered critical aspects of RDM, encompassing data collection, curation, analysis, visualization, and long-term preservation.

The curriculum extensively explored state-of-the-art software tools for data handling, including Jupyter notebook, R, Python, RightField, and OpenRefine. By providing hands-on training with these tools, the Winter School empowered participants to enhance their data management workflows and produce robust research outcomes.

Targeting PhD students and Early-Career Researchers, the Winter School nurtured the next generation of scientists, equipping them with the necessary skills to navigate the challenges posed by increasingly complex and diverse ecological datasets.

By sharing insights, lessons learned, and practical guidance, this publication serves as an invaluable reference and guide for organizers, educators, and researchers seeking to create impactful and inclusive training programs in research data management for biodiversity and related studies.

The Winter School's legacy lies not only in the skills acquired by participants but also in the collaboration across the biodiversity and environmental science community. It exemplifies the commitment of NFDI4Biodiversity to advance data-driven research and contribute to a more sustainable and biodiverse planet.