TDCC Staff Connect at International Digital Curation Conference

TDCC staff met peers from around the world at the 19th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC25), which took place in the Hague in February. The three TDCCs jointly presented a poster about our efforts to strengthen digital competences across research domains in the Netherlands. We see similar organisations developing in other countries and now have some connections we’re hoping will be useful for future collaboration.

The theme of the conference was "Twenty years back, twenty years forward: lessons and directions in digital curation". Marta Teperek, FAIR lead at Open Science NL, delivered an inspiring keynote that aligned well with the conference theme. Emphasising the huge importance of communities, she gave the floor to 12 key players in the field to sketch the progress made in digital curation in 20 years, and to point out new directions for the coming years.

Besides colleagues from Dutch universities and academic hospitals, European and US colleagues presented their achievements in digital curation infrastructure, research data support services and digital competence building. This year’s IDCC was also a moment of celebration for two key Dutch data players: DANS and 4TU.ResearchData, both marking major anniversaries.

DANS, which hosts TDCC-SSH, celebrated its 20-year anniversary as a leading institute for research data management and digital preservation in the Netherlands. 4TU.ResearchData, home to TDCC-NES, marked 15 years of providing repository infrastructure and expertise in FAIR data and software. Both institutes have a long-standing relationship with IDCC, contributing to discussions on best practices and digital curation strategies. They have played a crucial role in enabling Open Science and supporting researchers in making their data FAIR and accessible.

During the conference, 4TU.ResearchData’s director Daniel Bangert reflected on its 15-year journey, outlining key developments and future directions. The anniversary will be formally celebrated at the mini-conference on Open and FAIR in NES, taking place on 22-23 May in Utrecht.

Research Data Netherlands (RDNL), a collaboration of Dutch data service providers among which the hosting organisations of the TDCC's (4TU. DANS. Health-RI and SURF) presented a poster on the impact of a decade of research data supporters training and on the recently launched project to build a national training and community platform, funded by Open Science NL.

All papers, lightning talks and posters can be found in the IDCC 2025 collection in Zenodo.