From 3 to 7 July 2017, EUDAT organised its first Summer School in the stunning surroundings of Crete, kindly hosted by the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH), a unique chance to dive into the world of Research Data Management.
As stated by DAMA, "Data management is the development, execution and supervision of plans, policies, programs and practices that control, protect, deliver and enhance the value of data and information assets." [1] With its ever-growing importance in today's world of research and Big Data, EUDAT selected research data management to be the core topic of its first intensive short course for early-career researchers.
The EUDAT Summer School welcomed a total of 39 participants (around 70 applications were received!) comprising Master and PhD students and researchers coming from all over the world and generally based at European Institutions. The participants joined the school with the intent to learn more about the best practices of research data management as well as how to write a data management plan, the FAIR Data Principles, Open Data and many other crucial topics. The training on the full data lifecycle was also the perfect framework to invite attendees to discover the EUDAT services - some participants were already familiar with them while others were completely new to the portfolio of tools available - and actively use them (Click here to download the Summer School Training Material).
An excellent team of 18 trainers (see full list of trainers) guided the students on a 5-day journey through the universe of data, including hands-on sessions and 1-to-1 and Q&A sessions that were useful to collect valuable feedbacks for the implementation of the current EUDAT services, to clarify any unregulated aspects of the data management world and to certify an extremely high interest in the subject.Throughout the school, students were invited to provide feedback on their experience with the EUDAT services, which lead to very useful suggestions and debates. All collected comments and suggestions are now being evaluated by the EUDAT team.
The first findings from the students’ evaluation forms report a score of 4.5/5, meaning that the presented content and the organisation was extremely appreciated.
Among the suggested improvements we found that longer hands-on sessions would have been useful: a solid starting point to consider producing more training material, which will add up to the one already available on the training section on the EUDAT website (https://eudat.eu/training). Finally, the majority of the participants showed real interest in the future of EUDAT, both to continue using the services and to understand whether there was space for collaboration with their own organisations or with them as individual researchers.
Last but not least, the EUDAT Summer School was a great opportunity to get to know international peers from other disciplines, spanning from astronomy, seismology, meteorology, natural sciences and many other fields. The evaluation process allowed to create an harmonious group which had useful exchanges of views as well as constructive networking: a great starting point, perhaps, to develop the next-future research data management requirements.
Surprisingly, data management also inspired poetry, and one of the local participants from FORTH wanted to gift the whole group with some mantinades, typical of Crete and symbolic of the Greek hospitality:
Το summer school ξετελεψε
αντίο να μην πούμε,
μόνο να κανονίσουμε
φκαιρια μόλις βρούμε.
Οι γνώσεις ήτανε πολλές
καλή και η παρέα,
για αυτό έμαθαμε πολλά
περάσαμε κ' ωραία.
Ελπίζω να σας άρεσε
η όμορφη μας πόλη,
και να την εθυμόσαστε
η στη ζωή σας όλη.
Από Κρήτη με αγάπη.
The summer school is over
let's try not to say goodbye forever,
but to arrange a meeting
when we will find free time.
The material of the summer school was well organized
the trainers and the participants were cheery and hearty,
so we learned a lot
and we had a good time.
I hope you enjoy
our beautiful city,
and let it be in your mind
in your whole life.
From Crete with love
Mantinade written by George Nikitakis.
For further information on the EUDAT Summer School visit https://eudat.eu/eudat-summer-school
Click here to download the Summer School Training Material and don't miss out the photo slideshow! :-)