On Wednesday, April 2nd, 2025, the second phase of the training program “Quickstart in Research Data Management” (translated from the Greek title “Quickstart στη Διαχείριση Ερευνητικών Δεδομένων”) was successfully completed. The five weekly Sessions took place every Wednesday, from March 5th to April 2nd, 2025, and were delivered via the online platform ZOOM. Researchers coming from almost ten academic institutions, such as the Democritus University of Thrace, the University of Thessaly, the University of Ioannina, the Athens University of Economics and Business actively participated in these Sessions.
A central pillar of the program was the opportunity for open discussion, exchange of views, and sharing of reflections. Through their active engagement and commitment, participants raised important points and reflections arising from the topics addressed in each Session.
A key factor in the program’s success was the welcoming and relaxed atmosphere established from the very first meeting and maintained throughout. This atmosphere was fostered by a smooth onboarding process, where participants were asked—prior to the start of the Sessions—to add a slide on a Google Slide-deck with any information about themselves they wished to share. These introductory slides, prepared by both participants and trainers, were presented during the first two Sessions and helped foster early interaction and connection.
The educational process was designed to actively involve participants and promote a dynamic and interactive learning environment. It combined lectures, discussions, collaborative exercises, and hands-on assignments based on real research project case studies. As part of the Sessions’ interactivity, participants were encouraged to work together in small break-out rooms. There, they had the opportunity to exchange ideas, delve deeper into their project tasks, and collaborate on solving tasks and assignments.
Various digital tools such as polls and quizzes were integrated into the Sessions. These not only kept participants engaged, but also served as formative feedback tools, helping both trainers and trainees track understanding in real time. By using these tools, participation, interaction, and collaboration were significantly enhanced, enriching the overall learning experience and making it more meaningful and effective.
A strong emphasis was placed on the interactivity. Open discussions playing a prominet role, allowed participants to express concerns and reflections on important issues—such as ethical dilemmas arising from data sharing—and to share personal experiences related to the tools and services presented throughout the training. The opportunity to experiment and practice some of these tools during the Sessions was met with great enthusiasm.
An important part of the training was the Projects platform of the Learning Planet Institute, which participants used with controlled access. Participants primarily used this platform to document and track their tasks related to the projects they had selected. In addition, it served as a communication tool, allowing them to specify requirements, ask questions, and share feedback or comments regarding their assignments. The tasks were assigned on a weekly basis and were carried out individually by each participant.
At the end of each session, participants were asked to evaluate that particular session. Each participant was asked to rate how satisfied they were with the session on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning not satisfied at all and 5 meaning fully satisfied. We received 28 responses, of which 17 rated the session with a 5, 8 with a 4, and 3 with a 3. Overall, the majority of participants were fully satisfied with the training program.
During the final session, participants were asked to complete two online evaluations. The first, titled “Evaluation Feedback”, was conducted live via the Miro platform. Although the evaluation took place in real time, additional time was needed for its completion. Alongside the first evaluation, the link for a second assessment was also shared, titled “Questionnaire: Quickstart in Research Data Management”. This was conducted via Microsoft Forms.
With the conclusion of this second phase of training sessions, the first cycle of the “Quickstart in Research Data Management” training program was officially completed. This represents a significant achievement for HEAL-Link and its ongoing efforts to promote Open and Responsible Research and Innovation.
The FAIR-RDM course was created within the framework of the PATTERN project by Deborah Thorpe, Loek Brinkmann, and René van Horick (DANS), and was adapted by Marios Balatzaras and Theodora Karaiskou. It is available under a CC BY 4.0 license.