How can research infrastructures help researchers to adapt to shifting cultures of data?
Conducting Best Practice
If you find the changing landscape of data requirements confusing or indeed intimidating, then research infrastructures may be able to help. Because of the scale of infrastructural work, RIs have very often developed a vast experience of the standards and protocols that work for a given community (and probably also many that don’t work!). Such knowledge is made available though reports and publications, through the tools we offer, and through the advice our communities can share.
Informing Best Practice
In addition, RIs are working at the forefront of the emerging policies for Open Science, translating the needs of the humanities upwards into discussions with European Commission bodies, but also with organisations like the Research Data Alliance, projects like Open Aire, and initiatives such as GoFAIR. There are so many issues involved in the transformation of the entire system of science from a closed to an open mode in Europe – RIs are uniquely well-placed therefore to bridge the gap between researcher needs and macro-level requirements.