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CDF Newsletter #3

The third CDF newsletter. Read about the the CDF, RDM best practices, upcoming events & more!
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1. News & Updates from the CDF

Successful Love Data Week

For the first time, the University of Freiburg has contributed to the Love Data Week. Together with the University Library, the Galaxy Team, and the DH Lab, the CDF organized several presentations around Research Data and Research Data Analysis. Read more about Love Data Week and check out the presentation slides on the CDF Knowledge Base.

KickOff-Meeting: Drive for bwSFS (managing research data)

For all employees, 1TB storage at the computer center is free of any charge. Getting this storage is handled by the computer center on demand at the moment. To make it easier for researchers in the future, there are plans to set up a self-service to receive 1TB storage (and more). In April, there was a first public presentation of the planned service. The slides are available from FreiDok plus.

CDF successful in EU grant on Data Stewardship

The Central Data Facility is part of the EU Horizon -Infra-2025-01-EOSC-04 project called STARDAST. STARDAST stands for Stewardship And Recognition for DAta Science Talent and will develop training frameworks and support mechanisms for hiring, recognizing and retaining professional Data Stewardship and strengthening institutional and community infrastructures in Europe. Led by EMBL, the CDF will be leading work package 5 about Curriculum consolidation, impact and sustainability. The CDF will share a full position within this EU grant with the Galaxy Team. The project will start in September 2026.

Next Data Stewardship-Meeting

The next Data Stewardship meeting will take place on Thursday 18th June 2026 from 10-11:00 – save the date. The Agenda and location will be announced on the website and in the next Newsletter (end of May). Report from the last Data Stewardship meetings can be found on the CDF webpage under recent events.

CDF@Doc Camp

The CDF joins the Doc Camp 2026 in July and introduce Research Data Management and its services around this topic to doctoral candidates. Registration for this event is still possible via the registration page.

2. Services & Offerings

New on CDF Knowledge Base

The CDF Knowledge Base brings together essential information on research data management, the UFR service catalogue, and tools for data handling, analysis, and management. Read about why an ORCiD Identifier is the main identifier at University of Freiburg and how to get yours in the new CDF ORCiD guide, and on the University Library website.

Helpdesk & Open Hour

Got a question about data or research data management? Join the CDF Open Hour! Every Friday from 11:00 to 11:30, our team is available online to answer your questions and point you to the right resources. Drop in anytime - no registration needed. More details

3. Best Practices

Collaborative tools

bwSync&Share: State service for synchronizing data between different users and devices.

Since January 2014, the state service bwSync&Share has been available to all students and staff of universities in Baden-Württemberg. bwSync&Share is an online storage service that allows users to exchange documents and synchronize them between desktop and mobile devices. Data access is possible using Sync&Share clients for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Apple iOS, and Android operating systems, as well as across platforms via a web browser. The service is operated by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). More information on the RZ webpage.

Big Blue Button@Uni Freiburg

Big Blue Button is an online meeting platform and a virtual classroom software program designed for online education. All members of the University of Freiburg have acces to BBB via university account. Find more information about BBB in the CDF RDM Catalogue.

Matrix Messenger

The Matrix Messenger enables efficient communication similar to e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack, but with data protection-compliant encryption and own hosting infrastructure through the University of Freiburg’s data centre. The registration for matrix is simply done via the Uni account. Find more information and instruction/support in the CDF RDM Catalogue.

European Alternatives

Find European alternatives for digital service and products, like cloud services and SaaS products on european-alternatives.eu.

4. Tips & Tricks

RDM Tips & Tricks

Good research data management can make your daily work smoother, more efficient, and far more future-proof. In each newsletter, we share a few practical tips to help you stay organized.

Repositories

Do you know where to publish your data? Data should be published in repositories. Besides the University repository FreiDok plus (for publication of articles) and FreiData (for data publication), the is a big number of repositories out there which can be used. re3data is a global registry of research data repositories. The registry covers research data repositories from different academic disciplines. re3data presents repositories for the permanent storage and access of data sets to researchers, funding bodies, publishers and scholarly institutions. re3data aims to promote a culture of sharing, increased access and better visibility of research data.

You can find the most important information about repositories and how to choose the right one for your needs in the CDF guide.

5. Training & Events on Data Analysis and RDM

Customized Workshops

The CDF offers tailored workshops on data organization and research data management for collaborative research initiatives such as CRCs or Excellence Clusters. Whether you need an introduction for new team members or a deep dive into project-specific workflows, we’re happy to design a format that fits your needs. Get in touch to learn more!

Galaxy Training Academy 2026

The Galaxy Training Academy is a self-paced online training event for beginners and advanced learners who want to improve their data analysis skills in Galaxy and/or in popular fields in bioinformatics (but also other disciplines). Over the course of one week, we offer a diverse selection of learning tracks for you.

If you want to learn how to use Galaxy (an open source data analysis platform), join the 5-day (May 18 – 22, 2026) Global Online and Asynchronous learning event and register here.

6. News from the DFG

DFG Recommendations on the Resilience of Research Data Infrastructures The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) has published its Information for Researchers No. 23 (31 March 2026), presenting recommendations from its Senate working group “Resilience in Academia” on safeguarding research data infrastructures. The document highlights the growing strategic importance of research data across all disciplines, while warning of increasing vulnerabilities from cyberattacks, geopolitical tensions, and ideologically driven funding decisions.

The DFG calls on researchers, scholarly societies, funding bodies, and policymakers to act jointly: researchers are encouraged to apply discipline-specific data standards and use supra-regional repositories; institutions are urged to prioritise European open-source solutions to strengthen digital sovereignty; and policymakers are asked to treat data infrastructure funding as a core public responsibility, developing sustainable cross-border financing models at the European and international level. Existing initiatives such as the NFDI and EOSC are highlighted as key building blocks for a resilient and interoperable research data landscape.

For full text see the DFG news post

7. Get Involved

  • Save the date! Next Data Stewardship Meeting Thursday 18th June 2026 from 10-11:00
  • Register! Galaxy Training Academy 18-22 May 2026, 24/7, online

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