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Data Champion Award: Rewarding Excellent RDM from Early Career Researchers

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Název: Data Champion Award: Rewarding Excellent RDM from Early Career Researchers
Autoři: Köhler, Anna, Rehwald, Stephanie
Informace o vydavateli: Zenodo, 2025.
Rok vydání: 2025
Témata: RDM awareness, early career researchers, RDM incentives
Popis: There is no point to even the best-designed and most innovative RDM infrastructures if researchers are not motivated to use them. The question of how to generate awareness of the importance of RDM among researchers and then turn that awareness into action is therefore essential. To that end, the Research Data Services (RDS) of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have established the Data Champion Award as a prize given to early career research-ers (PhD candidates) to acknowledge and reward excellence in RDM. The overall goal is to create more incentives that will contribute to the establishment of good RDM as a routine for a new generation of researchers, thus enabling a larger cultural shift. In a model that has since been adopted by various other universities (e.g. TU Delft [1], Bielefeld University [2]), the University of Cambridge launched a Data Champion program focused on peer-to-peer education and networking: these Data Champions are volunteer researchers who advocate good RDM. Furthermore, some universities crown Data Champions among their established researchers and highlight their work through interviews as best-practice examples. Both of these approaches are laudable and effective; however, they add further responsibilities to the workload of researchers who often already feel overwhelmed, and they do not specifically reward early career researchers committed to good RDM. At UDE, the RDS have therefore decided to reinterpret the meaning of Data Champion – as a title that acknowledges outstanding efforts in RDM from PhD candidates, does not put additional responsibilities on the researchers, and is rewarded with material prizes such as iPads, AirPods, or €100, sourced from project funds. These prizes are meant to reward RDM efforts at the same level as, for example, outstanding posters and presentations at conferences. This approach is intended both as a direct incentive for early career researchers and as a way of raising awareness of RDM more generally, including through interviews with the winners published on the RDS website as best-practice examples. By acknowledging, rewarding and spotlighting excellence in RDM among early career researchers as role models, the RDS are aiming to further establish RDM as a regular part of the research process. So far, four Data Champions have been awarded (three in CRC/TRR 196 MARIE, one in CRC 1430) for their pioneering use of RDM tools, their contributions towards developing metadata schemes, and their commitment to open science. Candidates were nominated by PIs, with the final decision made by the Steering Committees of the CRCs. The program has been met with a positive response in the CRCs. Going forward, the RDS intend to continue this program in the next funding phases of the CRCs and to expand it: Data Champions will be awarded in further CRCs and Research Training Groups, as well as independently of projects in cooperation with the faculties of UDE, supported by funds of the university library allocated for open science and awareness initiatives, thus improving the visibility of excellent RDM and contributing to the establishment of FAIR data principles early on in researchers' careers.
Druh dokumentu: Article
Conference object
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16735877
DOI: 10.17185/duepublico/84333
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16735878
Rights: CC BY
Přístupové číslo: edsair.doi.dedup.....326c38d3d7cb45d3af5ae4cf0a11dcae
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Popis
Abstrakt:There is no point to even the best-designed and most innovative RDM infrastructures if researchers are not motivated to use them. The question of how to generate awareness of the importance of RDM among researchers and then turn that awareness into action is therefore essential. To that end, the Research Data Services (RDS) of the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) have established the Data Champion Award as a prize given to early career research-ers (PhD candidates) to acknowledge and reward excellence in RDM. The overall goal is to create more incentives that will contribute to the establishment of good RDM as a routine for a new generation of researchers, thus enabling a larger cultural shift. In a model that has since been adopted by various other universities (e.g. TU Delft [1], Bielefeld University [2]), the University of Cambridge launched a Data Champion program focused on peer-to-peer education and networking: these Data Champions are volunteer researchers who advocate good RDM. Furthermore, some universities crown Data Champions among their established researchers and highlight their work through interviews as best-practice examples. Both of these approaches are laudable and effective; however, they add further responsibilities to the workload of researchers who often already feel overwhelmed, and they do not specifically reward early career researchers committed to good RDM. At UDE, the RDS have therefore decided to reinterpret the meaning of Data Champion – as a title that acknowledges outstanding efforts in RDM from PhD candidates, does not put additional responsibilities on the researchers, and is rewarded with material prizes such as iPads, AirPods, or €100, sourced from project funds. These prizes are meant to reward RDM efforts at the same level as, for example, outstanding posters and presentations at conferences. This approach is intended both as a direct incentive for early career researchers and as a way of raising awareness of RDM more generally, including through interviews with the winners published on the RDS website as best-practice examples. By acknowledging, rewarding and spotlighting excellence in RDM among early career researchers as role models, the RDS are aiming to further establish RDM as a regular part of the research process. So far, four Data Champions have been awarded (three in CRC/TRR 196 MARIE, one in CRC 1430) for their pioneering use of RDM tools, their contributions towards developing metadata schemes, and their commitment to open science. Candidates were nominated by PIs, with the final decision made by the Steering Committees of the CRCs. The program has been met with a positive response in the CRCs. Going forward, the RDS intend to continue this program in the next funding phases of the CRCs and to expand it: Data Champions will be awarded in further CRCs and Research Training Groups, as well as independently of projects in cooperation with the faculties of UDE, supported by funds of the university library allocated for open science and awareness initiatives, thus improving the visibility of excellent RDM and contributing to the establishment of FAIR data principles early on in researchers' careers.
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.16735877