2026-04-30

Competence Training for Research Data Management (RDMTraining4NFDI) is a basic service dedicated to strengthen research data management (RDM) competencies across the RDM community in collaboration with various NFDI consortia, NFDI basic services, state initiatives and further stakeholders. It empowers RDM multipliers by developing training formats, driving standardisation in RDM training materials and supporting the development of a RDM credential framework. 

Duration: 01.02.2025 (01.03.2025 for TH Köln) - 31.01.2026 (cost neutral extension for TH Köln until 30.04.2026) 

Target Group: RDM multipliers

Main Achievements: During the Initialisation Phase, RDMTraining4NFDI has made significant progress in shaping its service design and successfully achieved the following results: 

1. A comprehensive requirements analysis was conducted through semi-structured interviews with four use case consortia (BERD@NFDI, NFDI4Memory, KonsortSWD, NFDI4Microbiota), complemented by a quantitative survey with a total of 113 participants from 23 consortia and other stakeholders of the RDM community. 
2. A content blueprint was developed as a design document for evaluating training materials provided by BERD@NFDI, NFDI4Memory, NFDI4Microbiota and NFDI4Biodiversity. The evaluation revealed gaps in the fields of metadata, FAIR-compliant technical implementation, didactical instructions and the need for a terminology for RDM training materials. This resulted in a snapshot of training materials, which suggests quality criteria for training materials. A documentation and a template can be found on Zenodo.
3. Various RDM training formats were tested to gauge their effectiveness. Based on community feedback, the planned in-person summer school and online workshop series were developed into a six-week hybrid format and evaluated afterwards. The concept and workflow for creating and delivering the RDMTraining4NFDI Hybrid Event as well as the results of the evaluation are available on Zenodo.
4. The service has advanced its work on investigating certification processes by reviewing certification types and formats, quality criteria and drafting further recommendations for next steps towards a certification process.

Stakeholder engagement and community feedback are central activities. In a stakeholder meeting on 29 November 2025, a total of 67 participants from the RDM community provided critical feedback on identified gaps as well as on their needs and suggested steps towards a more coordinated RDM training approach.
In addition, RDMTraining arranged 21 individual one-on-one meetings to exchange with NFDI consortia, data competence centres, and state initiatives in Germany, held more than 60 consultation meetings with stakeholders and participated in various activities of the RDM community to avoid parallel developments and to establish collaborative synergies.

Outlook Integration Phase: RDMTraining4NFDI aims to strengthen RDM competencies by delivering revised and expanded modular training aligned with community needs. It supports effective RDM training due to offering didactic support and co-developing or promoting re-usable technical templates and documentations for the development of RDM training materials as well as contributing to a shared terminology service on RDM training. RDMTraining4NFDI also aims to integrate pilot modules for acquiring RDM competencies into curricula of German Higher Education institutes to test a pilot certification process which was built on the concept of micro-credentials and aligned with Skills4EOSC.