The EOSC EDEN project is creating an expert curation network that will enhance and facilitate curation and digital preservation processes to ensure research data remain FAIR in the long term.
To discuss and lay the foundation of this network, we invite research data curation and digital preservation experts to join us in a 2-day bootstrap workshop to be held on the 1st and 2nd of October 2025 in Leuven, Belgium.
Important Dates
Call for Applications Opens: June 6, 2025
Application Deadline: June 23, 2025, at 18:00 CEST
Notification of Acceptance: By early July 2025
Workshop Dates: October 1-2, 2025
Submit your application by June 23 and mark the dates in your calendar!
We look forward to welcoming you in this pivotal workshop following the selection process! Read more about the workshop at https://eden-fidelis.eu/events/shape-future-research-data-curation-europe
Call for Action
The workshop participants are expected to contribute actively to the following two main outcomes from the workshop which will help shape the future of digital preservation processes in the European landscape, through the EOSC:
- Draft a strategic plan and roadmap for the expert curation network. Bring your expertise and discipline-specific focus in defining the characteristics of the expert curation network, including its vision, mission, values, guiding principles, target groups, sustainability, strategic objectives, implementation and impact, tasks, and activities.
- Draft an initial outline of the expert curation network handbook. Contribute to defining the specific roles and responsibilities concerning curation and digital preservation tasks such as quality (technical and standards compliance vs. scientific) and value assessments based on the purpose of the data, and intra and cross-disciplinary demands for reuse.
For more information about the network, see the Background and Ambition section below.
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Participants will be selected based on criteria to ensure a balanced and diverse representation. This includes expertise in research data curation and digital preservation, as well as coverage across disciplines, types of organization, repository (generalist/specialist), collection/catalogue, network, project, and digital object. We are mainly looking for participants from Europe. Experts from outside Europe are welcome to apply for participation, but are not eligible for travel support.
We will be offering travel support for selected participants, based on actual costs for transportation up to 500 euro per participant. Applicants for travel support must reside and/or work in an EU or Associated Country for the duration of the workshop.
To apply for a seat at the workshop, please fill in and submit this application form by June 23, 2025, at 18:00 CEST.
Application Review and Selection Process
All submitted applications will be carefully reviewed by the workshop organizers. Our goal is to select 20 experts who collectively represent a balanced and diverse range of expertise, disciplines, organization types, and digital object types. This diversity is essential to ensure meaningful discussions and to achieve the workshop’s objectives of laying the foundations for a robust and inclusive European Expert Curation Network.
We strive to notify all applicants about the outcome of their application by early July 2025.
Background and Ambition
Curation is a key factor in securing the digital preservation of digital objects over the long-term and is therefore an essential part of the services offered by most Trusted Digital Repositories (TDRs). Due to the complexity and diversity of research objects, curators need to rely on robust guidelines and established workflows to ensure digital objects are accurately and appropriately cared for. However, due to the continually changing digital and technological landscapes, guidelines and workflows are not sufficient – effective curation requires ongoing knowledge exchange with, and support from peers, to build from a larger experience base. To this end, some repositories and archives are both engaged in and actively support different types of networks. However, there is considerable variation across disciplines and data types when it comes to available network support and how focused these collaborations are on digital preservation and data quality aspects. In addition, national-level curation networks initiatives exist and are being established to build shared knowledge resources, but more extensive, multi-national curation networks can ensure more thorough and persistent enablement of long-term digital preservation.
EOSC EDEN aims to create a curation expert network and will work to facilitate the sustainable embedding of the created curation network into existing organisational contexts to ensure the continued maintenance and extension of the assets produced by the project after its conclusion. The expert curation network will
- address lack of expertise or experience;
- provide stakeholders with a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration;
- support national, institutional, discipline-oriented and other specialised repositories and archives in harmonising their curation practices to integrate data quality with the longer-term goal of digital preservation to ensure data remain accessible and reusable across disciplines and for intended use as technology and methodology change.
Contact
For more information about applying or the EOSC EDEN project, feel free to reach out to us:
📧 Email: pmo.eden@postit.csc.fi
🌐 Website: https://eden-fidelis.eu/