“We have planted the seed for a focused and coordinated effort to address the issue of Research Data Management,” said Dr. Ulrike Stahl, lead of the “Community Involvement and Networking” Task Area at FAIRagro in November 2024, summarizing the successful outcome of the first workshop held with FAIRagro and representatives from the five departmental research institutions of the Bavarian State Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Tourism (StMELF), titled “Key Issues and Solutions in Research Data Management in Departmental Research.”
The follow-up event on May 11, 2026, demonstrated that the initiative is well on its way to taking root: During the event, it was agreed that the Research Data Management Working Group would continue to meet regularly with representatives from all departmental institutions to identify concrete, collaborative solutions for research data management at the StMELF: ranging from necessary cloud and storage solutions, through standardized folder structures and file naming conventions, to solutions for publishing in appropriate repositories or onboarding/offboarding checklists related to data management.
The goal remains to learn from one another, identify synergies, and thereby provide each other with maximum support. In this context, the use of existing tools, expertise, services, and best practices—such as those offered by FAIRagro—plays a significant role: “…numerous RDM offerings are already available free of charge (e.g., from FAIRagro); these offerings should be utilized whenever possible; from an IT perspective, FAIRagro’s RDM tools may be used within the department!”
One of the co-organizers from the StMELF comments: “The positive feedback we’ve received speaks for itself and shows that we’ve hopefully set the ball rolling.”
The scale of this initiative is evident from the number of people directly or indirectly involved with RDM within the StMELF departments: in total, this amounts to approximately 550 research staff. When laboratory staff, who are also affected by RDM, are included, the total number rises to 668 people. We at FAIRagro are very pleased to be able to continue supporting this emerging success story.