Education and Training on Handling of Research Data IG

The context of increasing volumes of data being created by researchers and the strengthening of requirements for research data management and data sharing has created demand for a new and evolving set of competencies and skills for researchers who create and use the data, and the growing cadre of professionals who support them.

In general, the fostering of these abilities is not explicitly addressed by current training or formal education plans. Also, the place, role and career structure of support professions (data scientists, data librarians, data managers, data analysts, research administrators, infrastructure providers and developers, etc.) is not clear.

The objective of this IG is the exchange of information about existing developments and initiatives and promotion of training/education to manage research data throughout the data lifecycle. Concretely, it will make the case for creating taxonomies of the skills required by different group of data management specialists/professionals and elaborating reference models as a basis to:

1. enable the setting of quality standards for appropriate education and training programmes aimed at researchers and the professionals that support them, at all career stages;
2. encourage the recognition of data skills amongst employees, employers, and professional bodies.
3. prepare the ground for practical applications applying these standards in educational environments

The potential benefits include:

• increased employability, mobility and recognition of data professionals, including international certification and accreditation, and improved career progression structures;
• better recognition of data competencies and skills as integral components of researcher and support staff attributes;
• increased supply of trained data professionals;
• encouraging innovation in data-related curricula;
• fostering professional associations around recognizable skills.
• coordinating development of framework curriculum for different domains.