In order to effectively advance RDA’s core values of openly sharing data across technologies, disciplines, and countries to address the grand challenges of society (https://www.rd-alliance.org/), it is vital to develop an infrastructure and to facilitate community activities to decrease the technical and social barriers for research data sharing. To achieve a fast and wide uptake of RDA principles across all stakeholder groups, Bulgarian RDA node activities plan to cover four main directions: (1) awareness raising, (2) trainings, (3) forums to reconcile interests (4) contributing to the work of the RDA.
1. Awareness raising
The advancement of a national data management agenda requires primarily awareness raising among involved stakeholders including trainings and skill development on the use of data. An advocacy program should be organized to familiarize the national research and data communities about the domestic and international landscape of research and data policies in order to effectively integrate the national initiatives into the international data discourse. Therefore, the presence of national institutions and associations in international forums (conferences, workshops, seminars) is crucial to exchange information and share best practices. Collaborations with international initiatives and programs, such as OpenAIRE, EOSC, FOSTER and other RDA nodes will also contribute to an exchange of best practices and know-hows in organizing workshops and conferences, since sharing experiences is vital in the developing global data discourse.
2. Trainings
As increasing volumes of data are being created by researchers and research data management and data sharing has become an urging requirement, new sets of competencies and skills are in demand for researchers and professionals who support them. In order to strengthen data sharing and reuse, training/education to manage research data throughout the data lifecycle is essential involving not only researchers, but also their support professions (data scientists, data librarians, data managers, data analysts, research administrators, infrastructure providers and developers, etc.). The primary objectives of these trainings are, on the one hand, to provide information on standards, RDA recommendations and outputs, data skills, etc., and on the other hand, to advance the practical application of this knowledge.
Webinars and training events will inform the wider research communities on the benefits of data reuse and the main principles of data management. A new series of events will be organized in which the subjects will be extended towards FAIR data management.
3. Reconciliation of interests
Besides the conferences and workshops where various stakeholders have the opportunity to familiarize with different user viewpoints, demands and requirements, events should be organized for decision makers where the current state of knowledge, challenges and opportunities could be exchanged and discussed. A high level expert meetings, including decision makers from the government, academia and the private sector, will be organized to align views and efforts on developing data systems and infrastructures. Bulgarian RDA node and RDA member organizations also intend to delegate attendees to events organised by RDA and will search for talented experts available to contribute to concrete RDA activities (eg. preparing evaluations, reports, forecasts, rfc drafts, etc. in the data management - data economy - data research areas).
4. Contributing to the work of RDA
Bulgarian RDA node will promote RDA, its objectives, working groups and interest groups among Bulgarian stakeholders. Bulgarian RDA node members will screen and apply to the existing WG-s and IG-s including to the Group of European Data Experts (GEDE) group.
Our plan is to:
- Increase our membership in GEDE and in RDA WG-s IG-s with a special focus on ICT specifications.
- Update the RDA Europe webpage with the news on Bulgarian RDA activities
- Start bilateral connections with other RDA nodes via video conferences
- Be present at least by one representative of Bulgarian Node in RDA Plenary events, including the regional assembly, and by one early career participant.