New developments in research data infrastructures |
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| Coordinator 1 | Dr Daniel Fuß (Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi)) |
The session is intended to gain an insight into current developments in regard to the provision of (a) research data and (b) innovative support services for data users. It points to the growing importance of research data management and the important role of data infrastructures to support researchers in an increasingly complex landscape with diverse data sources and data formats.
First starting point is the system of accredited Research Data Centers (RDC) in Germany. These RDCs were created to enable access to restricted research data, in particular data relating to individuals, households or companies. Such sensitive data require specific safeguards for provision and use. More than 40 RDCs act as a decentralized network of research data infrastructure providers for national and international scientists. They serve as a kind of “data trustee” whose quality assurance in terms of data editing, management, documentation, and dissemination is ensured by a joint accreditation and monitoring process with the German Data Forum (RatSWD).
The second starting point is the wide range of services that have been implemented as part of the Consortium for the Social, Behavioral, Educational and Economic Sciences (KonsortSWD) within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in order to exploit new data sources and to further improve access to and use of data for empirical analyses. Examples include QualidataNet as a central platform for the secondary use of qualitative data resources, RDCnet as a planned network of interconnected onsite guest researcher workstations for improved access to highly sensitive information and Forum4MICA as an online place for the public exchange of information on all aspects of research data and research data management.
Based on selected contributions, the session will highlight opportunities for accessing relevant research data sources and related services with a discussion of challenges in their provision and gaps that still exist.