Who does what? – Research Data Management at ETH Zurich

Abstract

As all universities, ETH Zurich has to address increasing requirements in Research Data Management (RDM). Some of these are driven by continuous development of methods in science and technology. Others are the result of the necessity to carry forward well established standards of Good Scientific Practice into mostly digital workflows. Further requirements are motivated by funders’ hope of making more research data available as Open Data to advance re-use and thus better exploit the potential value of publicly funded data for knowledge generation. ETH Zurich as a technical university has its focus in science and technology. While several services for RDM support have been in place for years, they were not initially integrated over the full research data life-cycle. The need to support the full life-cycle has become more pressing in recent years. This paper outlines the current set of services and their integration as well as the collaboration of the involved organizational units of ETH Zurich. Tools which are employed to provide the services are mentioned. As the current state is not supposed to be static or final, its strengths and weaknesses are discussed with a view towards future development.