AUSSDA - The Austrian Social Science Data Archive

STATUS completed

TOTAL BUDGET EUR 2.000.000 

DURATION 04/2021-04/2025

CONTACT Dimitri Prandner

 

 

RI:TRAIN Plus

Research infrastructures (RIs) and their services are an essential element in creating the potential for scientific progress in the European Union and beyond. Together with Core Facilities (CFs) – which exist in many universities and scientific research centres – RIs are a prerequisite for excellence in science, for the establishment of open science and open innovation strategies, and an important factor in the development of initiatives, practices, joint facilities, guidelines and standards. This requires highly qualified personnel. But what specific skills and abilities are needed to operate RIs and CFs? What challenges must be overcome? And how are the training courses developed as part of the RI:TRAIN plus project assessed?

AUSSDA researchers addressed these questions as part of the RI:TRAIN plus project before evaluating the continuing education programmes offered within the framework of RI:TRAIN plus.

Mapping study: Research infrastructure and training needs

The first part of the study comprises expert interviews with the managers of RIs and CFs. This generates in-depth knowledge and understanding of the tasks and challenges in RIs and provides insights into the skills required for the profession.

Building on this, the second step is a survey of employees at European RIs and CFs from all scientific fields. This provides information on key aspects of typical workflows at RIs and CFs in various fields, identifies the necessary soft and hard skills, and determines the positioning of the organisations in the research landscape.

This data will be used to identify areas where training is needed at RIs and CFs and which skills will be necessary for operations in the future. The findings will be incorporated into further tasks and work packages of RI:TRAIN plus, which are concerned with establishing a pan-European curriculum for research infrastructure management and further connecting existing RIs and CFs.

Project reports:

Book chapters/anthology chapters:

  • Sinner, P., & Prandner, D. (2022). Let Others Shine: Key Competencies in European Research Infrastructures and Core Facilities. In 8th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'22) (S. 479-487). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València.

Project data:

 

Science communication: Summer school in Bologna

A key finding of the first part of the project was that science communication and the mediating role of RIs and CFs represent a major challenge. Accordingly, a three-day summer school course on science communication was developed and the corresponding slide set/teaching kit was made available.

Materials and teaching kit for the summer school course


Evaluation of RI:TRAIN plus course offerings

After two rounds of RI:TRAIN plus training courses had been held, they were evaluated by AUSSDA in a multi-stage process. The focus was on the suitability of the participants for the expected target group, the participants' assessment of the quality of the course content, and the participants' motives for taking advantage of the offer.

The result is a four-part evaluation study consisting of registration data, course evaluations from the programme, an online survey and group interviews (in person in Milan).

The study shows that there is a high demand for training in research infrastructures, but that course participants do not always match the target group expected by RI:TRAIN plus – it is not only managers of research infrastructures who are looking for further training, but also staff.

Project report:

 

AUSSDA was involved in the EU Horizon 2020 project as a CESSDA partner and linked third party. Information on the overall project can be found at: https://ritrainplus.eu/

Dimitri Prandner coordinated the project from the Linz site.

Project management for AUSSDA: Dimitri Prandner Project collaboration: Philip Sinner (mapping study), Jana Kern (evaluation study), Nikolai Soran (mapping study)