Towards research data management support in Lithuania

On the 30^th of October, 2019, the workshop "Getting Started with Research Data Management Support" welcomed university managers, research support, administrative support staff and librarians to Kaunas University of Technology. The workshop was given by Dr Marta Teperek, Data Stewardship Coordinator at TU Delft in the Netherlands, Dr Ir Santosh Ilamparuthi, Data Steward at TU Delft and Dr Ir Shalini Kurapati, Senior Research Fellow of Open Science at the Politecnico di Torino in Italy.

The questions on how to provide effective support for research data management, on the key elements of research data management and the existing components which can be re-used and adapted from elsewhere, to engage with researchers about research data and how to make them interested in these topics and use the tools and services developed for them.

The interactive event provided the participants with tangible solutions they can take away with them to get started with RDM support at their institutions.

The event attracted more than 40 participants from 12 institutions of higher education in Lithuania: General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Kauno kolegija / University of Applied Sciences, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Lithuanian Sports University, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Mykolas Romeris University, University of Management and Economics (ISM), Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vytautas Magnus University, Vilniaus kolegija / University of Applied Sciences and Vilnius University.

The participants of the workshop appreciated the practical tips they received, institutional cases of providing research data management support, also the interactive nature and atmosphere of the event. They were left with a homework task of finding out more in the recently published "Engaging Researchers with Data Management: The Cookbook" https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/1080.

The workshop was organized in the frame of OpenAIRE-Advance and was also part of the workplan of Kaunas University of Technology as a coordinating institution of the RDA National Node Lithuania. We are working on forthcoming events dedicated to raising awareness on the importance of research data management in Lithuania.