90% of users are satisfied with EUDAT services - survey

According to a recent survey conducted by the Data Infrastructure Capacity for EOSC project (DICE), users of EUDAT services expressed high satisfaction and acknowledged their relevance in facilitating cross-domain and cross-border research. The survey encompassed both EUDAT and non-EUDAT services, with the majority of respondents being EUDAT users. More than 100 users were invited to participate, providing background information on the service context, specific utilisation, and feedback.

The survey revealed that the majority of users (90%) were either satisfied or very satisfied with the DICE and EUDAT services, while only 1 user expressed high dissatisfaction. More than half of the respondents indicated the highest satisfaction rating.

When asked about meeting their expectations, 67% of users either agreed or strongly agreed that the service aligned with their expectations, while 13% remained neutral and another 20% strongly disagreed. Among all respondents, 50% strongly agreed that the service met their expectations.

In terms of accessibility, 75% of users found the service either easy or very easy to access, with 50% stating it was "very easy." As for the channels used to request the service, 80% utilised EUDAT-owned channels such as direct email, the EUDAT helpdesk, webforms, and service pages, while 20% made requests through the EOSC Portal.

In terms of user support, 89% of users were either very satisfied or satisfied with the user support provided, while 7% remained neutral and another 4% were dissatisfied. Among all respondents, 63% were very satisfied with the user support provided.

The survey also shed light on the motivations behind requesting EUDAT and DICE services, which were predominantly driven by specific needs. Common reasons included integrating the service into their research workflows, making the service available to their research community or group, and becoming a direct user. Other motivations included testing and exploration.

Survey respondents represented diverse domains such as agronomy, astrophysics, biomaterials and biotechnology, computer science, climate and environment, earth sciences, physics and more. They operated from various countries including Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, France and Spain, highlighting the cross-domain and cross-border ambitions of EUDAT and its services.

Debora Testi, EUDAT User Engagement Leader and DICE Project Coordinator said, “We are of course very pleased to see that the service offering from EUDAT and DICE is appreciated by our users. We are now analysing the received feedback to further improve the service offering in the future. The EUDAT team continues to be committed to supporting European research communities and users in their data management activities”.