Erasmus+ exchange visit at RSU – sharing experience with the University of Ljubljana in research data management

From 25 to 29 August, data manager Dr Bojan Kverh from the University of Ljubljana visited Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) as part of Erasmus+ exchange to share his experience and learn about RSU’s approach to research data management. The visit was a follow-up to the collaboration launched this May, when two RSU data curators (Lina Laze and Viola Daniela Kiselova) participated in Erasmus+ staff mobility for training in the Institute of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics at University of Ljubljana.

From the left: Viola Daniela Kiselova, Lina Laze, Bojan Kverh, Laura Badune, and Monta Simona Zeltina. Photo from project archive

Dr Bojan Kverh was introduced with the RSU research data management support system, the process of developing data management plans, RSU Dataverse repository and its features, as well as the process of data set deposition. In turn, RSU data stewards were presented the work of data managers at the University of Ljubljana, the activities of the Spoznaj project to promote open science culture at the research institutes in Slovenia and the use of the Data Stewardship Wizard tool to create data management plans.

At the end of the visit, on 29 August, the guest visited the Higher Education and Science Information Technology Shared Service Centre (VPC), where discussions were held on similarities in data curator projects in Latvia and Slovenia aimed at strengthening human capital – preparing competent specialists (data managers/data stewards) and supporting researchers in data management. During this meeting, the representatives shared their experiences and challenges, thus developing new ideas to bring to practice in their institutions. The representative of the University of Ljubljana was particularly keen on learning more about the implementation of DataverseLV repository as similar national repository is planned to be established in Slovenia in the near future.

From the left: Lina Laze, Bojan Kverh, Kristaps Oskalns (VPC), Kaspars Berzins (VPC), Viola Daniela Kiselova. Photo from project archive

The exchange of experience not only strengthened cooperation between RSU and the University of Ljubljana, but also provided insights into new approaches to more efficient research data management and implementation of open science principles.