The Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI) has been a longtime organisational member and supporter of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), having partnered with RDA on a number of European-funded projects to both develop best practices for research data and build the necessary cross-community connections to adopt, test and progress those practices. This year, the DRI also became the RDA in Ireland node coordinator with responsibility to help Irish researchers, institutions and research support personnel to access and use new recommendations.
The RDA’s semi-annual plenary meetings are an important connection point for volunteers participating in the many RDA Interest Groups, Working Groups and Communities of Practice. Participants come together, online or in-person, to discuss recent outputs and new projects, to develop their networks and, perhaps most importantly, to find support and encouragement for work in their disciplines, organisations and geographical communities.
This year, two new staff members at DRI attended the RDA’s 10th Anniversary Plenary in Gothenburg, Sweden for the first time. We invited Joan Murphy, Research Associate and Michelle Doran, Project Manager, National Open Research Forum (NORF) to share their experience getting to know the RDA community. The next Plenary will be a hybrid event running alongside International Data Week 2023 in Salzburg, Austria, from October 23-26, 2023. (Pictured above: Irish participants at the Gothenburg meeting.)
Thanks so much Joan and Michelle for agreeing to share your thoughts on your first RDA Plenary experience! To give readers a little bit of background before we start, I’d like to ask what interested you in RDA in the first place?
JM: The sheer breadth of participants drew me to the RDA Plenary initially. So many of us work in our own research silos, but we’re all facing similar challenges when it comes to organising and managing our data. The opportunity to learn from others in a relaxed and collegial environment appealed to me hugely.
MD: The RDA is recognised as a global leader in the open science and open research ecosystem. Attending the 20th Plenary in person provided me with a unique opportunity to meet members of the international open research community.
It seems clear that the scope of the RDA community and the potential connections with others working towards best practices in Open Science was a major draw. Okay, let’s talk now about how you realised those connections during the event. Did you find the Plenary Pathways helpful? The RDA Pathways were created by the RDA’s Technical Advisory Board to help community members navigate all RDA activities. This RDA Pathway Synopsis enhances the Plenary experience by providing an overview of all pathways plus their relevant sessions, RDA groups, recommendations and outputs, and ambassadors.
MD: I found the lengthy plenary programme a little overwhelming with its parallel sessions, acronyms and group colour coding legend. I didn’t use the plenary pathways, although I can see how they are useful, particularly to a newcomer. Even if there is no pathway that seems immediately applicable to you, I think a more focused approach to the RDA activities will definitely be of benefit.
The biggest advantage that I had was that some of my colleagues had attended RDA Plenaries in the past and were able to help me navigate the Plenary and the RDA more generally. That is one of the main reasons that I think a session like the one being organised by the DRI on 22nd of August will be of real benefit to anyone thinking about getting involved in RDA.
JM: The programme at first sight was overwhelming—acronyms were confusing and the symbols and colour coding didn’t help me at all. I was incredibly relieved to find the Plenary Pathway documents. As well as drawing my attention to sessions that I had a particular interest in they alerted me to streams that I possibly would have overlooked. Also, once I had a framework in place for myself based on my particular ‘pathway’ it gave me a sense of freedom to go to sessions completely unrelated to my interests in the downtime, safe in the knowledge that I wasn’t missing any key sessions in my own area of interest.
When you did figure out what sessions you wanted to attend, what was it like going to the meetings?
JM: Before the Plenary I’d had very little experience of the RDA, so I wouldn’t have been able to differentiate between a Working Group and an Interest Group. Going to these focussed meetings was great, the egalitarian nature of them was the thing that struck me most. Even though I was a newcomer I was welcome to contribute and participate, to be part of the conversation, in a mutually respectful environment. Although these sessions had an agenda there was never a sense that people were being rushed.
Some of the meetings had fewer than 30 attendees, others had upwards of 100, but in all cases we were able to contribute to a shared document and everyone seemed to be given a voice. I had thought, as this was my first RDA Plenary, that I would be lurking at the back of any meeting I attended, but by day 3, following a random coffee break conversation, I actually found myself doing a brief presentation on my own work in the area of Cultural Heritage to a Physical Samples Interest Group. That was not something I had anticipated in advance!
MD: Like Joan, I had minimal experience of the various RDA groups before attending the Plenary. As Joan said, the meetings are welcoming and I was impressed by how the facilitators made sure to include the online participants throughout the discussions. I think it is useful to understand the differences between an Interest Group and a Working Group and the differing aims and functionalities of both groups. [A quick overview for the reader: Working Groups are usually shorter-lived groups with a focus on a particular outcome such as: a report, recommendation, event, etc. Working Groups often spin-up out of conversations in related, ongoing Interest Groups.]
I also attended a couple of Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions which I particularly enjoyed. It was exciting as a newcomer to feel as though I was getting involved in exploring a topic from the very early stages.
Do you have any personal highlights you’d like to share?
MD: Other than the conference dinner and the RDA cupcakes, I really enjoyed being able to meet people in-person that I had previously only worked with online. As I said at the outset, RDA is a global community and I can’t imagine what other context would have allowed me to meet with so many of my international colleagues.
JM: For me the highlight was the interaction with other people who are as passionate about data as I am. It was the side conversations, the chats at the coffee break, the connections I was able to make with people from other disciplines. There really is no substitute for the conversations that you can have over a coffee about the real challenges we all face in our working lives. To be able to share these conversations with people from other continents, as well as other countries, was very special.
Okay, last question—is there anything you’re looking forward to for the next Plenary?
JM: Since I returned from the Gothenburg Plenary I’ve stayed in contact with a number of the people I met and I’ve had some fruitful exchanges with others around the topics of image interoperability and Open Science. Also, despite there being a number of participants from my own discipline (Cultural Heritage) at the Plenary, I was surprised to find that there was no RDA Interest Group for the area. The development of a Cultural Heritage Interest Group is something that I’m hoping to contribute towards for the next Plenary in the planned ‘Birds of a Feather’ session, ‘Why aren’t we talking about Collections as Data?’
MD: I am still finding my feet when it comes to how best to contribute to the RDA community. I will be attending the next Plenary in Salzburg in October for International Data Week 2023 (IDW 23). Now that I have firsthand experience with the RDA, I feel confident that I will be able to get a lot more from my second Plenary. IDW 23 combines the RDA’s 21st Plenary with SciDataCon 2023 organised by the International Science Council’s Committee on Data (CODATA) and World Data System (WDS). The draft programmes for both the Plenary and SciDataCon are available online. There are plenty of activities to keep anyone with an interest in open research busy for the four days of the event: https://www.rd-alliance.org/rdas-21st-plenary-programme.
I hope you both enjoy your next Plenary experience! As a reminder, we’ll be talking more about how to get the most out of the next RDA Plenary in our upcoming webinar ‘De-mystifying the Research Data Alliance’ on 22 August 2023. Register here to attend.
