A recent survey conducted by the Data Infrastructure Capacity for EOSC project (DICE) showed a high satisfaction for EUDAT services and their continued relevance for cross-domain and cross-border research-enabling. 
 
The overall DICE survey covers both EUDAT and non-EUDAT services with a majority (64%) being EUDAT users. Almost 100 users were invited to take part in the survey which obtained background information on the context in which the service was used, the specific service utilised and what they thought of the service. 16.5% of the user community responded to the survey. 

High satisfaction

As for satisfaction, the majority (86%) were either satisfied or very satisfied with the DICE and EUDAT services while only 14% were very dissatisfied. 50% of the total have indicated the highest satisfaction rating. 
 
Respondents were asked how the service met their expectations. 86% either “agree” or “strongly agree” that the service was in line with their expectations with 7% being neutral and another 7% strongly disagreeing. The overwhelming majority, 64% of total respondents, indicate that they strongly agree to the service being in line with their expectations. 

Easy access

Regarding access to the service, 86% indicated access was either “easy” or “very easy”, with 57% of the total indicating access was “very easy”. As for where the service was accessed, 85% have requested the service through EUDAT-owned channels (direct email, EUDAT helpdesk, webform, service page) while 15% have made the request through the EOSC Portal. 

EUDAT in demand

Among the most popular motivations for requesting the EUDAT and DICE services are largely need-driven. The most common reasons are (1) to become a direct user, (2) to make the service available to their own research community or group, (3) and finally to integrate the service with their own or their community’s research workflow. Other reasons seen were for testing or to widen the dissemination of their datasets.
 
Reflecting the cross-domain, and cross-border ambitions of EUDAT and its services, the survey respondents belonged to diverse domains such as molecular biology, political science, research data management, chemistry, climate, computational fluid dynamics, security/cybersecurity and defence, physical sciences, fluid dynamics, photon sciences, computer science, earth sciences, among others and were operating from Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, and Spain. 
 
EUDAT User Engagement Leader and DICE Project Coordinator Debora Testi said, “It is a very positive outcome for EUDAT in general and for all DICE service providers to see this overall very positive evaluation of our services. We will put effort in addressing the users’ concerns and less positive feedback, as part of our continuous commitment to satisfy users communities needs. We will run surveys of this kind in the future, but all users can anytime refer to us any issue or ideas for improvements of our services”.
 
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