DKZ.2R@ Digital Competencies in Research

When it comes to research, digital competencies are constantly becoming more important. The VW-foundation aims at supporting initiatives working with digital competencies and giving visibility to new ideas. From the second to fourth of December the foundation therefore funded and hosted a workshop week, supporting four different workshops focusing on digital competencies in research. The event took place in Hannover Herrenhausen.
Together with the data literacy center QUADRIGA, the NFDIxCS and the NFDI4DS, the DKZ.2R co-hosted one of these workshops. Together with about 40 invited participants we worked on the topic of “research and software competencies” focusing on three guiding questions:
1) What are the essential research data and software competencies that are often overlooked (e.g., in existing (data and software literacy) frameworks, programs, and curricula)?
2) How can we effectively teach research data and software competencies to researchers, considering their specific needs and constraints?
3) How can we effectively communicate and collaborate to develop and possibly share educational resources and training programs?

Dr. Renita Danabalan guided us through three diverse, intense, and exciting days of discussions and progress-oriented group session. After setting the stage for an informal and productive atmosphere including a warm-up session, and getting to know the other participants on the first day, the group was split up into three “tracks” for the working sessions on the second and third day. This enabled everyone to work on the guiding questions which interested them most while keeping the option to switch between sessions. In the end we came up with concrete outputs for each guiding question, including plans to write a paper, and organising a community workshop, as well as a task-force to take measures to improve communication for collaboration.

For further information on our guiding questions and agenda for the meeting visit our workshop website Workshop “Research Data and Software Competencies. Additionally, we are working on a podcast to give both, a general overview of the topic and recap of the event, and a deep dive into our guiding questions and outputs, explaining what everyone can do to make digital competencies in research a bit more prominent and visible.

Stay tuned!

P.S.: For more information about the other workshops funded by the VW-foundation visit their websites:

• “Datenkompetenz im Fokus: Angebote, Qualitätssicherung und Vernetzung”
• “Forschungsdatenmanagement mit geringen Ressourcen? Kompetenzaufbau durch Vernetzung von Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften”
• “Code for Science: Bessere Forschung durch bessere Forschungssoftwarekompetenzen”