The annual Shared RDM project meeting took place at Graz University of Technology from 23–24 September 2025, bringing together Austrian partners to reflect on the project’s progress and its future beyond the official funding period. Around 40 participants from various Austrian Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) were present.
A key highlight of the meeting was an in-depth presentation of the EU project OSTrails, whose mission closely aligns with Shared RDM's mission of creating sustainable, collaborative infrastructures for research data management (RDM). OSTrails introduces innovative approaches to enhance the Plan-Track-Assess stages of research outputs and offers a valuable perspective on how Shared RDM's outcomes can be linked with efforts in the wider European landscape.
The presentations emphasised the Interoperability Frameworks, Pilots, and the Data Management Plan (DMP) tool DAMAP illustrating their contributions to other European initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).
The presenters from OSTrails included:
- Ka Yee Suvini Lai (TU Wien), who introduced the overall OSTrail’s project and its goals.
- Daniel Spichtinger (UniWien), who discussed the Pilots activities, engaging national stakeholders at this Shared RDM event.
- Valentin Futterer (TU Wien) and Laura Thaci (TU Graz), who covered the latest and upcoming developments of DAMAP.
- Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien), the technical lead of WPx, who provided in-depth details on DAMAP and its role in OSTrails.
Key Takeaways
- Shared vision: Both projects push for sustainable RDM collaboration beyond project timelines.
- Clearer picture of OSTrails: The Shared RDM participants were able to understand how OSTrails will fit their use-cases via the three fundamental pillars and the Commons.
- DAMAP tool: Demonstrated as a practical, user-friendly DMP solution supporting FAIR and interoperable research data.
- The Pilots and their impact:
- National pilots: 15 countries co-design practical, local RDM solutions.
- Thematic pilots: 8 domains tailor DMPs, enrich knowledge graphs, and define FAIR rules.
- Horizon Europe pilot: Scales FAIR assessment across flagship EU projects.
Quote
“OSTrails is entering a transformative phase, with pilots turning technical developments into impact. For Austria, DAMAP plays a central role in making DMPs machine-actionable and advancing the DMP Interoperability Framework—an essential step towards federating capabilities for EOSC Nodes.”
-Tomasz Miksa (TU Wien)
