Strengthening Collaboration: Highlights from the DCC Implementation Network (DCC-IN) Coordinators Meeting
Authors: Kimberley Zwiers, Nils Arlinghaus, Lena Karvovskaya, Margriet Miedema
On January 14th 2025, the DCC Implementation Network coordinators gathered in Utrecht for a meeting aimed at fostering collaborations between networks and strengthening interoperability between research infrastructures within Open Science. It was a great day for sharing ideas, aligning strategies, and sparking meaningful discussions.
With Wina Smeenk’s energetic facilitation, the day began with a series of insightful presentations by LDCCs, TDCCs and eScience Center representatives, who each shared their strategic plans for the recently awarded Open Science NL (OSNL) Interoperability Call. These presentations set the stage for engaging conversations on collaboration opportunities, where coordinators explored synergies between their plans and identified ways to pool expertise and resources to develop impactful solutions. The collective aim? To contribute to a shared vision of interoperability that facilitates seamless data sharing and cross-institutional research collaboration. To share a few examples: The eScience Center will publish the gap-analysis by Tilburg University and VU, which highlights the differences between available and required digital skills training needs. Utrecht University will collaborate with TDCC-NES on an HPC training school and share its documentation on SURF Research Cloud with Erasmus University. Meanwhile, UMCG is set to meet with TU Delft and RadboudUMC to discuss data catalogues, and DCC-PO will convene a meeting with interested parties to explore joint recruitment strategies for new staff. The three TDCCs take slightly different approaches to the funding they receive from OSNL: TDCC-NES is planning to hire two ontology engineers to work on project basis, TDCC-SSH is working with community-led “Interoperability missions” (hiring one project lead and 4-5 experts for shorter “missions”) and TDCC-LSH is planning to hire a metadata/semantic specialist and bioinformatician/technical specialist to compare research data workflows across various initiatives, identify gaps in metadata standards or technical support and highlight exemplary practices. Key takeaways were that each TDCC will hold individual coffee-chat meetings to further refine and develop their plans. Additionally, the TDCCs were directed by participants toward relevant knowledge institutes or initiatives, offering valuable support in refining their plans and ensuring a well-informed and strategic approach moving forward.
In the afternoon, Kimberley Zwiers led the discussions with great enthusiasm: the LDCC Liaison presented a prioritized list of collaboration topics that had been collected from LDCC coordinators previously in January 2024. These topics were selected based on their potential for active collaboration and strategic relevance. Discussions revolved around ongoing activities and the evolving prioritization of topics to ensure alignment with the changing needs of the DCC network.
Another key highlight was the introduction of the buddy system initiative for Research Software Management Supporters (RSMS). This initiative aims to connect community members, fostering discussions around research software management policies, guidelines, and short term roadmaps. The buddy system encourages information exchange and collaboration on projects, strengthening the network’s capacity to address shared challenges.
SURF’s presentation on Federated Infrastructures to enable Research Workflows provided both inspiration and practical insights. In an interactive session the participants explored innovative approaches to streamline research processes while maintaining flexibility and security. This session sparked lively discussions on how federated models can be applied across diverse research domains, driving efficiency and connectivity. It finally led to a version 0.9 of the DCC/T2 investment plan, focused on Federated Infrastructure to Enable Research Workflows. This draft was shared with NWO in mid-February, with further updates to follow.
The day wasn’t just all about presentations and discussions: Interactive activities kept energy levels high and fostered creative problem-solving; Poster boards showcased innovative ideas in each corner of the room, while sticky-note sessions encouraged participants to brainstorm about solutions to pressing challenges. These interactive assignments fostered teamwork and informal discussions continued during refreshments. We truly valued the collaborative spirit throughout the day and the collective dedication of the DCC Implementation Network coordinators to to progress towards open science and connect research infrastructures. Participants left with fresh insights and strengthened connections.
