Research Data Management at the Erasmus University Rotterdam - the situation at present.

1. Research Data
Management
SURF Support4Research Masterclass Research Support
24 september 2015
Marlon Domingus

2. Why RDM
1. Understanding the data and the context. It results in documentation
of key aspects during the whole research process, thus providing, in a
practical sense, the context to understand the data, and the relations
between them, in the course of time.
2. Transparancy. Documenting key aspects during the whole research
process provides transparency, for instance for reproduction and
validation purposes and even in cases where questions have arisen with
regards to scientific integrity.
3. Research funding. Research grant suppliers and funding agencies
increasingly demand research management plans and data paragraphs
from researchers and check the submitted grant proposals on aspects of
planned and embedded strategies to ensure that research data is
archived in a sustainable manner and made available for further
research.

3. Roles and Responsibilities
The Rector Magnificus and the Executive Board are responsible for a
coherent and effective EUR research data management approach. The
Executive Board recently appointed a vice rector research to coordinate
all research support activities.
The deans / directors of research and heads of department at the
various faculties, graduate schools and institutes of the EUR are
responsible for the organisational embedding of data management.
Researchers are responsible for storing data and documentation at
various moments during a study. The minimum that must be stored
consists of both the raw data and the data underlying any submitted or
published publication, the project plan, documentation that describes
and explains major changes to the earlier plan(s), as well as the
submitted version of the publication.

4. Roles and Responsibilities
The University Library has been given responsibility for raising
awareness for data management and for providing training and advice
for research data management. The Library and USC ITS have been
given responsibility for providing services for safe and secure storage,
archiving and retention of research data.
Erasmus Research & Business Support (ERBS) BV is responsible for
valorisation of research.
Legal Affairs is responsible for legal aspects related to research (i.e.
contracts, data ownership).
Academic Affairs is responsible for policy and guidelines related to
research.
The CIO Office is responsible for the architecture of the EUR infra and
services and the ownership and design of related processes.

5. Research Data Management: Collaboration
USC ITS Library
ERBS BV
Academic Affairs
Legal Affairs
CIO Office

6. Research Scenarios
Collaboration is designed for the following scenarios:
(meta)data storage and backup facility scenarios Current services for the EUR
1 for daily practice with data
@wEURk workplace and network storage
2 for daily practice with large datasets
@wEURk workplace and network storage
3 for daily practice in collaboration with researchers from other universities
SURFdrive
Dutch cloud service] for safe and secure file sharing
4 for daily practice in collaboration with researchers from other universities
DANS Dataverse
Dutch web based service for storing and accessing live datasets
5 for daily practice in collaboration with researchers from other universities
SURFsara
Dutch based High Performance Computing services.
6 for VSNU required long term storage of data and datasets
DANS Easy
Dutch web based dataset archiving service

7. RDM data lifecycle through RDM Services
2
Dutch
Dataverse
Network
live data sets
3
Data Archiving and Networked Services
data sets archive
Datacenter EUR
1
rawdata
EUR researchers

8. Work in Progress: EUR RDM Minimum Protocol
The minimal protocol defines what all scientific disciplines have in
common and what at least and in general should be properly stated and
documented.

9. Work in Progress: EUR RDM Legal Guidelines
What are the current legal issues relevant related to the research life
cycle?
data ownership
data protection
privacy protection & ethical committees
contracts
open access (publications / data)
valorisation (data / software / algorithm / …)
And to which guidelines should the EUR researcher comply?

10. Current Successes
Regulations Governing Use of Internet and IT Facilities [Sept 1 2015]
The purpose of these Regulations is to establish a proper procedure in
respect of the following:
• protecting personal data processed at EUR, e.g. that of EUR Staff
Members, students and parents;
• protecting confidential information, i.e. that of EUR, EUR Staff
Members or Students;
• protecting the intellectual property rights of EUR and third parties,
including the respecting of licence agreements that apply at EUR;

11. Current Successes
RDM Website: Research Matters

12. Current Successes
Guide to Quality Assurance Procedures of Research

13. Current Successes
“Guidelines for responsible research data management”
[Faculty initiative]

14. Challenges
1. Getting in touch with researchers at an early stage
of the new research proposals.
2. Presenting one easy to use and effective RDM infrastructure
for all types of research.
3. Details like:
- discipline specific metadata schemes
- support for tailored softwaredevelopment
- support for tailored databasedevelopment & related functionalities
- support for public cloud based workflows
- …

15. Further Information
drs. Marlon Domingus
project manager
Research Support Office
Erasmus University Rotterdam
+31 10 4088006
domingus@ubib.eur.nl

16. RDM Mindmap