Iscte Research Data Management Implementation Strategy

Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa is a public higher education institution in Portugal committed to providing the infrastructure and policy framework necessary for its scientific community to uphold the principles of open research. The Iscte has an Open Access Policy since 2009 (updated in 2015), and a Research Data Management and Sharing Policy approved in 2023. The Iscte Repository has been running since 2007, and in 2013, it became interoperable with the current research information system – Ciência-IUL – and with the data repository - Zenodo. This interoperability allows to link research results, including scientific publications, research data and data management plans, with the funding grant interoperable with OpenAIRE. The workflow in operation is the result of the synergy between services, whose implementation criteria guarantee compliance with the FAIR principles. For the storage of raw data storage, Iscte has a dedicated data centre designed to be flexible and scalable. Recently, Iscte integrated the Re.Data Consortium, approved in November 2024. In articulation with the Consortium, ten Research Data Management (RDM) Centres have been established in Portuguese Research Performing Organisations to ensure the capacity building of the scientific community, the improvement of the supported infrastructure, and the increase of the number of datasets published in trusted repositories. Within Re.Data, Iscte will lead the operationalisation of the Portuguese Network of Data Stewards, and the establishment of a robust helpdesk service, enhanced by AI automation, to ensure efficient and responsive support to all users of the community, leveraging the expertise of the Consortium and the Competence Centres. This presentation will not only describe the Iscte RDM strategy, the challenges and barriers encountered in its implementation, but also the work carried out during the first six months of the consortium, focusing on the involvement of the community in contributing to the activities described above.