Introducing Research Data Management as a Service Suite at RWTHAachen

Research Data Management (RDM) receives more and more attention as a core component of scientific work. This importance equally stems from the scientific work with everincreasing amounts of data, the value of this data for subsequent use, and the formal requirements of funding agencies. While these requirements are widely accepted among the researchers, the individual acceptance depends on many factors. In this paper we describe the initial steps at RWTH Aachen University to implement RDM as a widely accepted service suite. Here, service means appropriate IT solutions as well as a comprehensive training and support. The steps include the preliminary work to get the top management’s awareness and the dialog with the scientists to learn the practical requirements. We present the initial solutions and solution concepts derived so far. We explain how our local approach relates to broader external initiatives. It is especially important that all these concepts together encompass a comprehensive suite of support offerings, guidelines, and various IT service modules built or planned on the underlying IT infrastructure.