Sustainable Research Data Management in Helmholtz - Insights from HMC Data Professionals Survey 2024

Kurzfassung

The Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration (HMC) conducted a survey in 2024 to identify data professionals in the Helmholtz Association and to understand their research data management (RDM), FAIR data practices, gaps and needs. The survey is part of HMC’s mission to enhance sustainable management of research data and to more closely align its services to data professionals' needs. The questionnaire focused on gaining insights into RDM-related tasks that data professionals in Helmholtz work on, adherence of data management practices to the FAIR principles, RDM-related tools developed and used, alignment with data policies, challenges faced and needs expressed with respect to RDM-related work in Helmholtz. The survey was answered by 156 data professionals employed at different Helmholtz centers.This poster highlights key findings from the survey and provides an overview of the current state of research data management practices in the Helmholtz Association. Survey results show that data professionals work on various RDM-related tasks and operate at multiple organizational levels. With respect to their primary profession, more researchers were observed to be involved in data management than data professionals and librarians combined. However, more than three-fourths of the respondents expressed having had no formal training for their data management-related tasks. Nevertheless, the majority of respondents reported to align their data management practices to policies and guidelines of their Helmholtz center. Adherence to findability- and accessibility-related aspects of the FAIR principles was found to be more pronounced than alignment with respect to interoperability- and reusability-related aspects. Additionally, the survey data yields a list of commonly used tools for data management as well as tools that are (co-)developed by Helmholtz staff. As over 90% of the respondents reported to facing challenges in their RDM-related work, they expressed an interest in various service formats and topics. These results guide HMC in developing targeted support and services to improve research data management practices in the Helmholtz Association. A comprehensive survey report will be published soon.