RDA Europe National Nodes: Second Call For New Nodes Open!

RDA Europe, the European plug-in to the Research Data Alliance, is expanding its network of thirteen national nodes (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and UK) to foster adoption of RDA outputs in the region.

Nodes engage with research communities, support national agendas and contribute to the EU Open Science Strategy to ensure capillary uptake of RDA principles and outputs and aim to increase the participation in RDA globally.

If your organisation is working to enable open sharing of data and is based in a country not covered by an existing RDA national node, apply to the RDA Europe second call for new nodes.  How to become a node: the second call for national node grants

To become a node, your organisation must apply for a grant (grants.rd-alliance.org) to set up and manage a new RDA EU National Node, and develop and implement a broad-based and representative action plan aligned with RDA’s global vision and with national and European Digital agendas. Funding will be assigned via a cascading grants mechanism. This second call plans to award grants to six new European nodes. The total funding available in this call is €194,400.

The existing network of nodes

The current network of RDA Europe national nodes consists of thirteen nodes. As highlighted by current node coordinators, being an RDA national node brings numerous benefits and impact to organisations and national communities:

RDA Node is a vital link between the global research data community that convenes at RDA, and the national research community. It is a two-way stream of information, ideas, and people, with RDA outputs and international best practices flowing to the national level, and Finnish expertise and experiences streaming to the international level. Coordinating the node has offered CSC a new interface and line of communication to researchers, and helped us to get to know them and their data needs. Through the node we have been able to build a lively community of data experts across disciplines and domains, consisting of people who might not have otherwise ever crossed paths.

Heidi Lane -  CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd - RDA Finnish Node

The node activities will support the consolidation of the RDA Portuguese community and thereby foster the country strong international connections. Node members will be able to follow Portuguese initiatives, be aware of international results and adopt them. Equally important, the node will weave an image of the global data needs in the Portuguese community, which will be incredibly valuable to inform the initiatives of the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).

Cristina Ribeiro, INESC TEC, University of Porto - RDA Portuguese Node

The National Node gathers a vibrant, diverse and ever growing community. It promotes Open Science and data sharing at CNRS and other research organisations. Our first meeting of the National Node was held during the first Open Science National Days in December 2018, where the French Open Science Plan was presented. The plan specifically cited RDA with a commitment to RDA in France. The linked RDA French node meeting was attended by 200 people and more than 100 remotely. National membership in RDA increased by more than 20% between the inception of the Node in March 2018 and the end of the year.

Françoise Genova - CNRS - RDA French Node

What do nodes do?

Nodes play a dual role in representing their communities in RDA, and promoting engagement with RDA across the communities they serve. This involves but is not limited to:

• Acting as a central contact point between national/regional data practitioners and RDA;
• Fostering a diverse data community by engaging a wide range of stakeholders across domains;
• Growing existing RDA membership by demonstrating the value to individuals and organisations in the region and contributing to the RDA global growth;
• Contributing to the definition of research data policies at a national and/or regional level;
• Running events to engage, train and build consensus on nationally important data issues;
• Raising awareness of RDA activities, events and funding calls, and encouraging involvement;
• Consolidating and increasing the adoption of RDA outputs, recommendations and ICT Technical Specifications by targeted activities, profiling potential use cases across all scientific domains and organisations;
• Promoting and supporting data management best practices, standards and solutions;
• Interacting with national/regional research funding bodies, ministries and other government officials to influence data policy and digital agendas;
• Developing robust sustainability plans and business models to ensure node continuation after initial RDA Europe 4.0 funding;
• Representing national interests in RDA Interest/Working groups and governing structures.

Important dates

• Application period opens - 25 Jan 2019
• Application period closes - 26 April 2019
• Notification of results - 30 May 2019

Submit your application to the open call

For any queries related to your application, please contact grants@europe.rd-alliance.org