Report on the CAA-Webcast in cooperation with NFDI4Objects
Q&A on Research data management
On November 14, 2025, NFDI4Objects and CAA Germany hosted an interactive webcast on the topic of “Q&A on Research Data Management.” Around 50 participants discussed specific challenges from their own research practice with representatives from NFDI4Objects during the event.
The starting point was a question submitted in advance regarding the sustainable safeguarding, standardization, and interoperable provision of a complex archaeological research database. Key topics in research data management were discussed in relation to this practical question:
- the demarcation of virtual research environments, databases, data publications, and long-term archiving
- the structured documentation of relational data the use of controlled vocabularies and ontologies
- and the role of persistent identifiers for long-term reuse.
The discussion revealed a wide range of perspectives:
- Awareness and training: Several participants pointed out that not only students but also teachers need to be made more aware of FDM in order to anchor skills in a sustainable manner.
- Best practices and standards: There was a lively exchange about best and bad practices, the role of standards in archiving, and the need to combine methodological and practical skills with technical background knowledge.
- Versioning and reusability: The experts explained the differences between long-term archiving of completed data sets and versioned data publications, including the assignment of DOIs.
- Vocabularies and multilingualism: The challenges of using terms consistently in multiple languages were illustrated with an example from Luxembourg, which underscored the importance of community-driven vocabularies.
- Integration of existing infrastructures: Questions about the use of subject repositories, mapping pipelines, and knowledge graphs led to concrete suggestions on how NFDI4Objects supports projects without imposing rigid requirements.
NFDI4Objects presented the consortium’s latest developments and offerings, including the further development of recommendations for long-term archiving, the use of controlled vocabularies and standard data, and developments within the NFDI on the topic of persistent identifiers. It also showed how the community can be actively involved in the further development of these offerings.
The webcast clearly showed how NFDI4Objects acts as a mediator between research practice, infrastructure, and the community: not with rigid specifications, but through exchange formats, community clusters, and task area working groups in which viable solutions are developed jointly. The event thus not only provided answers to specific FDM questions, but also offered numerous starting points for further participation in the activities of NFDI4Objects.