In order to ensure the wider use of research data carried out at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU) and other Latvian research institutions and to be included in the common European community of researchers, the project "Support for the implementation of open research in practice, as well as solutions for sharing research data and participation in the EU open science cloud" has been launched. The project will be implemented by the Higher Education and Science Information Technology Shared Service Center (VPC) in cooperation with LBTU, Riga Stradinš University, University of Latvia and Riga Technical University.
Every year, Latvian research institutions, including LBTU, carry out thousands of studies and collect data on nature, technology and social developments. Their use ensures sustainable use of natural resources, technological development, and also increases the quality of life of society. Making decisions based on research data is a prerequisite for the development of all economic sectors.
"Using public funding for research is our daily routine and that of other scientific institutions in Latvia, which means that research results should also be publicly available. In addition, it is not just about research publications and final results, but collected and analyzed databases. Until now, the sharing of this level of data has been relatively difficult, due to the lack of technological solutions, as well as the competence of researchers in data management. The project for the introduction of open research started by the VPC and Latvian universities of research is an important step in solving the above-mentioned challenges and will promote not only the mutual cooperation of Latvian researchers, but also our more successful integration into the family of European researchers. This project will also allow researchers to make more extensive use of secondary analysis of data and evaluate the necessary resources for collecting new data," says LBTU Rector Irina Arkhipova.
In order to achieve what the Rector mentioned, within the framework of the project it is planned to develop Latvian higher education and research institutions in the management and use of human capital data, to improve institutional research data management, to promote the preparation, processing, annotation and sharing of high-quality scientific and research data, as well as to develop the necessary ICT solutions.
The project defines three main goals, which envisage creating an integrated Latvian open science data management model, a unified network of Latvian federated repositories of research data integrated into the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), as well as creating a cooperation network of Latvian research management specialists (data curators) and training the necessary specialists.
Currently, LBTU has started building a network of data curators and the head of data curators has been selected in an open competition. Professor Ilmārs Dukulis of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology will perform these duties. In general, it is planned to create 4 to 6 curator positions in each of the science universities and VPC. VPC curators will provide support to both university curators and those Latvian higher education institutions that will not have their own curators.
"In the first months, the main task of me and other curators is to identify the current situation of the university in the management of research data. In order to be able to do this and to be able to provide the necessary support to other colleagues, it will be necessary to learn the local and international learning content organized by the network of curators, which will take place both in person and online, after which you must successfully pass the final exams and fulfill the requirements for receiving a certificate of learning. I. Dukulis tells about his first work assignments.
The professor explains that in cooperation with the university's data protection, legal support, ethics commission, library, information technology, administration and other specialists, the development and implementation of regulatory acts regulating the management of research data will be carried out.
"The curators will provide regular informational and educational events for academic, research staff, students and staff on research data management and data reuse. One of the most important tasks will be to assist our university-funded research projects by providing support to the Data Curator Unit in the development and implementation of data management plans. As soon as the unified research data repository is created, its operation will be monitored and its use for both data storage and use will be promoted," says I. Dukulis about future plans.
When the group of LBTU curators is ready to perform their duties, information about events for university employees and students will be published both on the LBTU website and on the "My LBTU" intranet, but the educational materials are planned to be placed in the e-study system in a study course specially created for this project.
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