November Newsletter: TAB Elections, Plenary 17, VP16 Highlights, Member Opportunities, and more
RDA Announces New Members to Technical Advisory Board
With the RDA Election polls closing on 24 November, we are pleased to welcome the newly elected members to the Technical Advisory Board (TAB):
- Karin Breitman, Americas, Engineering and Technology
- Gretchen Greene, Americas, Natural Sciences
- Sarah Jones, Europe and Africa, Humanities
- João Rocha da Silva, Europe and Africa, Engineering and Technology
- Mingfang Wu, Asia and Oceania, Engineering and Technology
Congratulations and we look forward to working with them throughout their three-year terms.
We would like to express our gratitude to the following three candidates, who by a very, very small margin, were not called to serve this year: Rosella Aversa, Jesus Carretero and Juliane Schneider. Hopefully, these individuals will consider standing for election next year and continue to actively support RDA.
Lastly, we thank Andrew Treloar, Francoise Genova, Jane Wyngaard, Rainer Stotzka and Sarah Ramdeen. These individuals have dedicated their time to TAB over the past years and we are grateful to them for their passion, professionalism, expertise and energy and hope that they will continue to be driving members within the RDA community.
Learn more about our new members and the role of TAB.
Plenary 17 in Edinburgh, Scotland | 20-22 April 2021 | Opportunities for Participation
RDA P17 planning is underway, as both a virtual and in-person event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Confirmed speakers so far include:
- Richard Gold, a James McGill Professor and the founding and current Director of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy
- Dr Jeni Tennison, Vice President and Chief Strategy Adviser for the Open Data Institute
Current opportunities to participate in this event are as follows:
- Open Call for Co-located Events
If you are considering holding a data-focused event, co-locating with P17 will provide an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of your work within the RDA community. To co-locate with RDA for P17, simply submit your application before 12 February 2021. Please note that co-located events should NOT be organised on the same dates as the plenary meeting (20 – 22 April 2021).
- Open Call for Sessions
P17 will include all of the main elements of our typical in-person plenary event (breakout sessions, plenary sessions, poster event, networking events, etc.). For those new to RDA, breakout sessions are a large part of the event programme and include the following:- Working and Interest Group Sessions
- Joint Meetings (including multiple working and interest groups)
- Birds of a Feather Sessions
For Working and Interest Group Sessions and Joint Meetings, the meeting format is typically interactive and informational, giving both group members and new RDA members an opportunity to learn about the groups’ objectives and progress to date and in achieving deliverables, while also collaborating to determine and implement next steps regarding adoption and other related activities. Birds of a Feathers sessions provide members an opportunity to consider potential topics that could be recommended for the creation of new Working and/or Interest Groups. Topics should be sufficiently distinct from the work of existing groups or BoFs held at recent plenaries. The deadline to submit a session request is 12 January 2021 at 23:59 UTC.
RDA Strategic Plan 2020 - 2023 Open for Community Feedback
The Research Data Alliance (RDA) is currently finalising its fourth strategic plan, providing direction and vision for the organisation, its stakeholders and community until 2023. We invite all to provide feedback suggestions and comments on the Strategic Plan by Sunday December 6, 2020 at 23:59 UTC. Learn more.
Webinar for EOSC constituency on Data Together – Recording Available
Earlier in 2020, CODATA, GO FAIR, RDA and WDS outlined their joint commitment to work together to optimise the global research data ecosystem and to identify the opportunities and needs that will trigger federated infrastructures to service the new reality of data-driven science. Last week, the EOSC secretariat.eu organised a webinar entitled "Webinar for EOSC constituency on Data Together," featuring representatives from these four international data organisations who talked about collaboration and joint activities, including RDA Secretary General, Hilary Hanahoe. Slides and the recording of this event are now available.
DMPonline 10 Year Anniversary Week
This November celebrated the 10 year anniversary of DMPonline. The Digital Curation Centre ran a DMPonline celebration week from 16th – 20th November 2020, with two live virtual events, and a series of external and internal blog posts, surveys and feedback forms. Speakers included Carlos Casorrán and Kostas Repanas from the European Commission, Patricia Clarke from HRB and Natalie Meyers from the Exposing Data Management Plans RDA Working Group. Natalie shared some results from a research survey on exposing data management plans from 2019, followed by the RDA Exposing DMPs WG recommendations draft; Natalie's presentation is now available on YouTube, along with the rest of the presentations. You can find a summary and reflections on the anniversary events here, while the blog post series can be also be found on the DCC website.
Virtual Plenary 16 Highlights
With approximately 675 attendees representing all regions of the world, we can say without a doubt, VP16 was a success. Although we missed seeing each other face-to-face, we didn’t miss the charisma and excitement of the week. Feedback received so far has been overwhelmingly positive, with attendees appreciating our keynote speakers, panel sessions, networking opportunities and breakout meetings. As with all meetings, we are now evaluating what worked, what didn’t work and how best to use this information for future meetings. In early December, the Secretariat intends to release a final report to the public with these findings.
In the case you missed some sessions from VP16, recordings are still available from the event website for those who registered for the meeting. In approximately one month, the recordings will be available from the RDA website and accessible to the public.
VP16 Poster Winner
A special congratulations to Maria Luiza M. Campos and her team, the winner of the VP16 Poster Session who received the most votes from our virtual attendees, for the poster titled ‘VODAN BRAZIL - the Brazilian experience at the Virus Outbreak Data Network’.
- 781 reads