About LCRDM

The National Coordination Point Research Data Management facilitates a national approach to research data management in the Netherlands. Close coordination with education and research institutes is crucial. The Netherlands can so develop and implement an efficient and effective research data management policy.

The National Coordination Point Research Data Management (LCRDM) is a national network of experts in the field of research data management (RDM). The LCRDM forms the link between policy and solution. Within LCRDM, experts work together to put RDM subjects on the agenda that are too big for one institute to tackle and need a national plan of action. To that end, LCRDM brings together research support services, policy makers, ICT specialists, managers of diverse research institutes and research funding organizations.

The LCRDM coordinates and facilitates the collaboration between the various RDM stakeholders. To promote the exchange of expertise, a LCRDM website (lcrdm.nl) has been set up with accompanying wiki platform. The LCRDM also organizes national network meetings about all kinds of RDM topics.  

The goal of the LCRDM is to make RDM a self-evident part of education and research practice in the Netherlands within five years.

See also LCRDM implementation plan 2018 ff.

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Initiative and implementation

The federation of universities (VSNU) expressed the need for a compact and action-oriented coordination point Research Data Management to SURF. SURF has taken on a coordinating role in the process of helping RDM take steps towards achieving its goal as part of the SURF-innovation programme Open Science.

For further elaboration of solutions, LCRDM has sought to connect with other RDM groups in the Netherlands, like the UKB Work Group Research Data (for support), the SURF expertise centres RDNL and Go FAIR (for services) and the NPOS (for policy implementation).

Manner of working

During the course of 2018/2019, a newly established advisory group will work on prioritized activities for a national RDM collaboration. This plan will form the basis of a roadmap for 2019-2022.

If you as RDM expert are convinced of the importance of contributing to a national collaborative project, join the pool of experts. Get in touch with LCRDM coordinator Ingeborg Verheul at ingeborg.verheul@surfsara.nl.

If you have questions or proposals with regard to RDM that require a national approach, please mail them to LCRDM. We will hold a pitch among our network with the aim of forming a small task group that can quickly work out the issue in question.  

Read more about the new LCRDM way of working in the LCRDM implementation plan 2018 ff.

2015-2017

From 2015-2017 the LCRDM facilitated five national work groups that worked on the development of five key aspects of RDM policy. For the results see the ‘LCRDM handreikingen’ menu above.

For a comprehensive view of the work groups see the wiki platform

To conclude the roadmap 2015-2017, a conference was organized to review what had been achieved but also to make plans for the future: National cooperation in RDM. Celebrating Achievements, Shaping Future Directions.

Contact

If you have any questions or desire more information, please contact coordinator Ingeborg Verheul at ingeborg.verheul@surfsara.nl.

Read about the SURF innovation programme Open Science on the SURF website. See also the LCRDM implementation plan 2018 ff. 

It is advisable to consult the practical RDM guidelines via the menu and visit the LCRDM wiki platform.

Pooling of strengths

Universities, University Medical Centres, Universities of Applied Sciences and research institutes have considered the question of Research Data Management (RDM) for some time. Many valuable initiatives each contain part of the answer. If we share this know-how, we can add up the answers and so bundle our strengths and integrate Research Data Management in the daily practice of scientific research. This will promote the usefulness, sustainability and integrity of research causing it to excel. Optimal management and use of data will lead to new research questions and create opportunities for scientific breakthroughs.

Open Science    

In the slipstream of the 2016 Dutch EU chairmanship, the LCRDM, SURFacademy, the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and the Erasmus University organized the conference Designing & Shaping Open Science – one of the spearheads of the EU chairmanship was ‘open science’. The chairmanship also yielded the ‘Amsterdam Call for Action’. This was the run-up to the National Plan Open Science (NPOS). The LCRDM plays a role in several ambitions of the NPOS: read more about this on the LCRDM wiki platform.