These examples show small, early steps taken by ELIXIR Nodes. Use them for inspiration while working through chapter 1. A full strategy is not required.
The examples are linked to one or two topics from chapter 1:
Why strategy: why a data management strategy can be useful
Existing work: how existing activities, services or policies can be connected
Starting point: how to understand the current situation
Gaps to action: how gaps or unclear areas can lead to next steps
Who to involve: who needs to be part of the conversation
The examples are organised alphabetically by Node. Use the topics to find examples that connect to the chapter exercises.
ELIXIR Germany: training as a starting point
Node: ELIXIR Germany
Authors: Helena Schnitzer, training platform coordinator and liaison for RDM related questions
Topics: Gaps to action, Who to involve
Start with an activity that people already recognise and need. It can create space for coordination before broader strategy discussions begin.
Training activities were used as a starting point for collaboration between institutes. Instead of working in isolation, relevant partners from different institutes and universities came together to exchange ideas and jointly design and deliver training courses. Working on training provided a practical framework for collaboration and helped identify common topics, existing expertise and overlapping needs across institutions. The process also encouraged discussions about how training materials and expertise could be shared more effectively across the network.
Starting with a practical activity and with a small group helped to build trust and create connections between institutions before discussing broader strategic coordination.
ELIXIR Germany: connecting with national initiatives
Node: ELIXIR Germany
Authors: Helena Schnitzer, training platform coordinator and liaison for RDM related questions
Topics: Existing work, Who to involve
Node strategy work does not happen in isolation. National initiatives can help identify existing expertise, overlaps and useful connections.
The research data management landscape in Germany is shaped by several initiatives, including the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) and its domain-specific consortia. To better understand the wider landscape, we started exploring connections with these initiatives and exchanging information about ongoing activities, services and approaches.
The discussions helped us identify areas where similar work was already taking place and where collaboration or mutual awareness could be useful. The aim was not to establish one common structure or replace existing activities, but rather to improve visibility, identify overlaps and understand how different initiatives could complement each other.
This exchange highlighted the importance of considering the broader national context when planning Node-level activities and showed that coordination across initiatives can help make existing expertise more visible.
ELIXIR Germany: differences between institutes
Node: ELIXIR Germany
Authors: Helena Schnitzer, training platform coordinator and liaison for RDM related questions
Topics: Starting point, Why strategy
Do not assume that all institutes organise RDM in the same way. Understanding local differences helps identify where shared support or coordination can add value.
When looking across partner institutes, it became clear that RDM is organised in different ways. Institutes differ in their available support structures, distribution of responsibilities and level of established RDM activities.
Some institutes have dedicated roles or established processes, while others approach RDM through different local structures. These differences influence how easily researchers can access support and how visible existing resources are within an institution.
Recognising these variations is an important step towards developing approaches that are useful across the Node. Rather than assuming one solution fits all, understanding local contexts helps identify where common resources, coordination or knowledge exchange can provide added value.
ELIXIR Italy: inclusion in the Service Delivery Plan
Node: ELIXIR Italy
Authors: Flavio Licciulli, data steward
Topics: Gaps to action, Who to involve
A formal process can help clarify how services are classified, reviewed and included in wider Node and ELIXIR planning.
As ELIXIR Italy, we offer data resources, tools, courses and services to the Italian life sciences community, providing stable and sustainable access to biological data. The ELIXIR Italy General Assembly decided to establish a formal process for classifying the services provided by the Node members and for their inclusion in the Service Delivery Plan (SDP). To support this process, the local Technical Coordinators Group and Platform leaders developed a document defining a set of Quality Management (QM) parameters. These QM parameters are applied to ensure that the services offered by the six ELIXIR Italy Platforms (Compute, Data, Interoperability, Tools, Omics, and Training) meet the standards required for service validation and labelling. Services are classified into three levels:
- ELIXIR Italy resources: registered in bio.tools/FAIRSharing;
- SDP resources: offered to ELIXIR communities at large and included in the SDP;
- Core resources: services selected through processes governed by the ELIXIR Hub, such as Core Data Resources (CDRs) and Recommended Interoperability Resources (RIRs).
QM parameters are periodically collected and monitored through a review process conducted by Platform coordinators and deputies, and services are assigned to the corresponding level based on the results of this assessment.
The development and implementation of this formal process highlighted the importance of synergy among the various components of the Node, including the Head of Node, members of the General Assembly, technical and training staff, and representatives of the Platforms and communities.
ELIXIR Luxembourg: why a written data management strategy
Node: ELIXIR Luxembourg
Authors: Hana Marčetić and Vilem Ded, data steward liaisons
Topics: Why strategy, Starting point
Use the data management strategy to write down boundaries that are currently handled case by case. This can make decisions about roles, resources, products and representation easier to explain and repeat.
It’s worth mentioning the question of where we, as Luxembourg Centre of Systems Biomedicine (LCSB), end and where we, as ELIXIR Luxembourg, begin. Because our Node lived inside one single organisation for so long, and because an ELIXIR Node is not really a legal entity (it is more of an internal project for us), our operations and responsibilities as LCSB and as the Node have become quite intertwined over the years. Most of the time this is just how things are for us, and we do not really notice.
We are not always sure whether a virtual machine or support we are providing is coming from us as LCSB or from us as LCSB being ELIXIR. When we build a piece of software, its publication is on awkward pause till it is decided whether it should live in our LCSB GitLab or our ELIXIR Luxembourg GitHub. When joining meetings, we cannot decide which hat to wear that day, LCSB, the University, or ELIXIR, and which slide template goes with it. Onboarding has a similar feel for us: at some point joining LCSB and joining the Node become two different things, but exactly where that point sits is more of a vibe than a rule. The same goes with roles, let’s say an LCSB data steward and an ELIXIR data steward, it is usually the same one of us with two hats. When it is not, the difference tends to surface only when something concrete depends on it.
At presence, we resolve all of this case by case and the work gets done. But because we have never written the boundary down, we reason through every new situation from scratch. A Node data management strategy would give us a place to put that boundary on paper, so the small decisions about resources, products, roles and representation have somewhere to land.
ELIXIR Luxembourg: website as a collaboration platform
Node: ELIXIR Luxembourg
Authors: Hana Marčetić and Vilem Ded, data steward liaisons
Topics: Existing work, Gaps to action
A shared website can become more than a communication channel. It can also help document services, align responsibilities and make approvals traceable.
ELIXIR Luxembourg Node has organised its first half day local All Hands Meeting where individual service owners (people unofficially responsible for the service) presented the service and it quickly became clear that there is a need for alignment. Break out groups identified general issues and created a long list of TODO items. The Node website was till then one of the very few resources documenting services and activities within the Node. That served as a basis to turn it into a shared platform for discussion between members.
Several contentathons were organised to address the issues identified in the upcoming year. The events hosted coordinator, data stewards, technical personnel and led to an update of the website content making the services more visible. Most importantly, it helped align across the Node and members and more clearly define who is responsible for what and what our Node offers in the first place.
Any major change of the website content now requires confirmation (merge request approval) by a board member, a very lightweight but efficient way to capture responsibility and trace approvals. All this work highlighted the challenges with organising work and coordination, and created the space for alignment of what is currently working and how. From there on, and building on the National data strategy, we can move forward with documenting and further clarifying the Node strategy.
ELIXIR Luxembourg: Node member onboarding
Node: ELIXIR Luxembourg
Authors: Hana Marčetić and Vilem Ded, data steward liaisons
Topics: Gaps to action, Why strategy
Onboarding can reveal strategic gaps. Questions about membership, access, responsibilities and sign off often show where governance needs to be made explicit.
One concrete example of where the gap shows up came from a recent exercise. We set out to put together an onboarding document for new Node members. Something that should, in principle, be straightforward. In practice, it surfaced a number of questions we did not have clear answers to.
One example of these question is: ‘who actually counts as a Node member?’ With two organisations involved, the boundaries are less obvious than they used to be. Then there were the practical questions around formalities like ‘is there anything a new member is expected to sign, and if so, what?’ Access rights raised a similar set of questions: ‘which systems and resources should a new member get access to, and at what point in the onboarding process?’ And around all of that, the governance questions of ‘who can request access on someone’s behalf, who actually grants it, and who signs it off?’
The onboarding document begins to answer some of the questions above by defining the membership criteria, integration expectations, required accounts and access to resources, and newcomer’s responsibilities.
To become a member, a newcomer must be employed at one of the organisations comprising the Node and/or be involved in at least one ELIXIR Platform, Community, Focus Group, service/tool, or associated project. A newcomer should then be assigned a senior mentor for the first three months, who introduces the newcomer, adds them to the membership list, and arranges a welcome presentation covering ELIXIR structure, ongoing projects, contribution guidance, Code of Conduct and the Handbook of Operation.
New members are then added to the ELIXIR Luxembourg mailing list, have their account created and are given access to relevant workspaces. In turn, they are expected to attend and actively participate in relevant meetings, contribute to collaborative tasks and engage in line with the ELIXIR Code of Conduct and Community Handbook.
A Node strategy, with the governance and roles part properly worked out, would have given us something to anchor the onboarding document to rather than building the document and discovering the gaps along the way. For now, the work done on the document can also highlight the remaining gaps and questions that the strategy could help answer.
ELIXIR Netherlands: identifying where the Node can add value
Node: ELIXIR Netherlands
Authors: Mijke Jetten, data stewardship liaison and deputy training coordinator
Topics: Gaps to action, Existing work
Use a rough first version to start the conversation. It does not need to be complete. Its main value is to make ideas concrete enough for others to react, correct and build on.
One thing we noticed quickly was that everyone in the Node already had ideas about coordination, support and data management, but most of these ideas stayed in conversations. We talked about visibility, training, tools and governance, but it was difficult to move from general discussions to concrete next steps.
To make the discussion more practical, we started writing down rough ideas for a possible ELIXIR Netherlands data management strategy. We used the new ELIXIR Netherlands strategy as a starting point and added notes around data stewardship, training, technical coordination and support for researchers. The document was messy and incomplete, but that actually helped. It gave us something concrete to react to.
We then used the draft during discussions with the Head of Node and a data expert from one of our institutions. One thing that became clear very quickly was that many activities already existed somewhere in the network, but responsibilities and connections between activities were not always visible. Starting with a lightweight draft helped turn broad discussions into more practical conversations about priorities, coordination and where ELIXIR Netherlands could realistically help.
ELIXIR Netherlands: mapping strengths and gaps
Node: ELIXIR Netherlands
Authors: Mijke Jetten, data stewardship liaison and deputy training coordinator
Topics: Starting point, Existing work
What looks like a gap may be a visibility or coordination issue. Before defining new priorities or actions, check what already exists across the network, who is involved and where connections or responsibilities are unclear.
As part of exploring a possible Node data management strategy for ELIXIR Netherlands, we started mapping activities, roles and services across the network. We used the RDA GORC model together with the new ELIXIR Netherlands strategy to help structure our notes and discussions. The goal was not to cover the full model, but to identify gaps in coordination and areas where ELIXIR Netherlands could help connect activities across the network.
What we noticed is that many things already existed somewhere in the network. ELIXIR Netherlands already had strong expertise in interoperability, FAIRification, training and tools. At the same time, activities were spread across projects and organisations, and coordination was not always clear. This made it difficult to understand what should happen at Node level and what should stay local to institutes or projects.
The discussions quickly became practical. We kept coming back to one simple question: how does this help researchers? This helped us focus on topics such as data access and governance, metadata standards, and training around standards and tools. One important lesson so far is that ELIXIR Netherlands probably does not need to build many completely new things itself. In many cases, the bigger challenge is helping people find existing expertise, tools and examples across the network.
ELIXIR Norway: turning compliance into cultural change
Node: ELIXIR Norway
Authors: Federico Bianchini, data steward and deputy training coordinator
Topics: Existing work, Gaps to action
Link services to needs that researchers already recognise. This can make data management support easier to understand and use.
It is oftentimes extremely challenging to push for cultural changes in the way research is conducted, especially when the research community does not see an immediate value in using the services offered. One way to address this is to offer a service as a direct solution to one of the obligations researchers have to fulfil as part of their job.
We present here the example of ELIXIR Norway and the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW). The Research Council of Norway (RCN) requires Data Management Plans for all projects that have been granted. Such a document is to be submitted shortly after acceptance and has to be compliant with the Common Standard endorsed by the Research Data Alliance (RDA).
Shortly after these requirements were introduced, ELIXIR Norway started advertising practical workshops to create DMPs that conform to this common standard. These workshops were very successful among life scientists and contributed to spreading the usage of the DSW across the country. Our national instance now has more than 750 active users and over 1000 projects (DMPs).
The workshop also helped to push more generally various crucial concepts of data management, including the usage of standards and controlled terminologies, and the importance of data submission to relevant domain repositories.
ELIXIR Norway: bringing infrastructures together
Node: ELIXIR Norway
Authors: Federico Bianchini, data steward and deputy training coordinator
Topics: Who to involve, Existing work
Without coordination, infrastructures may duplicate work or miss useful services developed elsewhere. Shared frameworks can help connect expertise across communities.
Research infrastructures commonly operate in isolation and don’t benefit from tools and services that are developed outside of the research community they typically serve. This often leads to duplication of work and slower overall advancement.
In this example, we describe how ELIXIR Norway led a project that brought together several Research Infrastructures to develop a common framework. The BioMedData project was established in 2020 and ran for a total duration of 5 years. This project was executed within the context of ELIXIR Norway and involved the active collaboration of ten data-generating infrastructures covering diverse fields such as genomics, proteomics, medical imaging, high-throughput screening, nuclear magnetic resonance, biodiversity, and crystallography.
We build a network of data management experts between ELIXIR Norway and the collaborating infrastructures capable of offering research projects integrated and well-coordinated support for data management. This enabled projects to manage and share the data they generated.
The group produced templates for Data Management Plans (DMPs), highlighting both general best practices, including standards and controlled terminologies, and the available services and instrumentation at the actual partner facilities.
Moreover, this activity established the basis for monitoring activities on submission to domain-specific databases, which is now part of the ongoing work of ELIXIR Norway. At the end of the project, the partners signed a joint strategic statement for collaboration on data management. Unfortunately, not all partners managed to follow up on that due to inconsistent funding in the following periods.
ELIXIR Spain: Open Science resources in national policies
Node: ELIXIR Spain
Authors: Aída Moure, RDM liaison
Topics: Existing work, Starting point
Mapping policy references can make the Node’s contribution more visible and show where ELIXIR resources are already embedded in national Open Science and Data Management priorities.
An overview of references to ELIXIR and ELIXIR digital assets in National Open Science and Data Management policies and resources was conducted by different Nodes in 2025 under the ELIXIR Node Support Commissioned Service. The main objective was to better identify, understand and define the Open Science and Data Management landscape across ELIXIR. In the ELIXIR Spain Node, we performed an extensive review of the national landscape to identify policies and ELIXIR-related recommendations regarding Open Science and Data Management resources.
Results showed that ELIXIR is frequently referenced in Spanish national and regional policies and guidelines, particularly through services such as the Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW) and the ELIXIR Core Data Resources (CDRs). It also showed a cascading adoption of requirements established by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain’s main public funder of biomedical research. For example, funded projects in relevant domains must deposit their data at the European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA), which is part of the Node portfolio and is recognised as an ELIXIR Core Data Resource. Researchers are encouraged to use appropriate ELIXIR Core Data Resources and Deposition Databases for different data types. In addition, the exercise helped identify opportunities for further development, including increasing the visibility and recognition of ELIXIR within key national policy frameworks, such as the Spanish National Open Science Strategy (ENCA).
The analysis of existing Open Science and Data Management resources and recommendations provided valuable insights concerning these topics within the Spanish Node. It also positions ELIXIR well in these domains at national, regional and institutional level. The outputs of this exercise also provided the basis for an impact story factsheet, highlighting Spain as a strong example of good practice in Open Science and Research Data Management policies and resources in ELIXIR.
ELIXIR Spain: RDM practices and challenges
Node: ELIXIR Spain
Authors: Laura Portell, RDM liaison
Topics: Starting point, Who to involve
A survey can provide evidence for future RDM priorities. It helps move from assumptions about needs to a clearer picture of practices, gaps and support needs across the Node.
The methodology to capture Research Data Management (RDM) practices and challenges within the ELIXIR Spain Node is based on a structured survey distributed to all Node members and groups involved in the Service Delivery Plan (SDP). The survey aims to identify current strengths, gaps, challenges and opportunities related to RDM across the Node. It can be completed either by Principal Investigators (PIs) or by group members who are most familiar with the group’s RDM practices and SDP-related resources.
The survey collects information on the current use of RDM practices, tools and policies as well as the perceived barriers and challenges faced by different groups and institutions. Through this approach, we aim to obtain a representative picture of how research data are currently managed across the Node. The collected information will also help identify differences in maturity levels between groups, ranging from those with established RDM strategies to those at earlier stages of implementation.
Once the survey results are analysed, the information will help identify common trends as well as gaps related to RDM practices across the Node. The results will provide evidence to better understand the level of adoption of RDM practices, detect areas where additional support or coordination may be beneficial and identify opportunities to promote knowledge exchange between groups. In addition, the survey outcomes will help assess the need for tailored training activities or guided materials adapted to different levels of RDM maturity. Overall, the collected information will contribute to informing future actions and strategic decisions aimed at strengthening RDM capacity, harmonising practices and fostering a more coordinated RDM culture within the ELIXIR Spain Node.
ELIXIR Spain: Research Data Management training to boost capacity building and community engagement
Node: ELIXIR Spain
Authors: Eva Alloza, deputy Node coordinator and training coordinator
Topics: Gaps to action, Who to involve
The first experiences of the ELIXIR Spanish Node with Research Data Management (RDM) training were linked to sporadic requests to deliver short talks introducing basic RDM concepts and the FAIR principles to institutions, research networks, or individual projects. These sessions served as a rapid needs-assessment tool: they helped us gauge learners’ prior knowledge, identify the variety of roles requiring this training, and begin iterating on our training materials. As Data Management Plans (DMPs) became mandatory in the research ecosystem, the requests evolved from pure theory to include hands-on exercises and live Q&A, reflecting a growing demand for practical, applicable skills.
Participation in the ELIXIR Converge project created a collaborative framework for sharing expertise and co-developing training resources with other ELIXIR Nodes. Within this project, we organised a virtual Train the Trainer course with a data management / data stewardship focus, allowing us to document the challenges faced by trainers and to refine our pedagogical approach based on the feedback from professionals.
During the ELIXIR Converge we initiated a close collaboration with the Data Management unit at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), which leads the Data Network of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES). This partnership enables the ELIXIR Spanish Node to jointly design three-day beginner and advanced level courses, theory-plus-practice workshops—occasionally supplemented by a half-day Train the Trainer to disseminate teaching competencies. In the last years we have contributed with our cross-domain knowledge and our expertise in the Life Sciences domain, sensitive research data management and software management plan (SMP) aspects. The courses are led by the BSC Data Management unit together with BSC specialist teams in security, ELSI, Earth Sciences. The current training offer includes Research Data Management for Beginners (edition 2024, 2025, 2026) and Research Data Management for Advanced Users (edition 2024, 2025, and the upcoming 2026).
Training is an activity that a Node can develop with a two-fold purpose: building capacity within the Node staff and its national stakeholders, while building community by connecting research data managers and enabling them to share knowledge, opportunities, and challenges.
ELIXIR Sweden: clarifying the Node remit
Node: ELIXIR Sweden
Authors: Elin Kronander and Niclas Jareborg, heads of data management
Topics: Why strategy, Who to involve
Vision and mission statements can help clarify what a team works on, why it matters and who the work is for.
During 2020 the Data management staff of the Swedish Node went from two to five persons; from a pair of persons having unspoken and not well-defined remits and roles, to a team that needed more clarity on what to work with and why. Our approach to bring more clarity was to organise a workshop around Vision and Mission statements for the team, where Vision is a desired future position and Missions are overall objectives to work towards the Vision, as well as approaches to reach the objectives.
We ended up with a Vision that did not focus on a desired state that lay outside of the team itself, but rather focused on the recipients of the outputs of the team. So “A group of people can do something because reasons” rather than “The team will be world-class at something”. This way of formulating the vision defined our will to create impact, for whom, and for what reasons.
Our vision statement ended up being: “Swedish Life Science researchers apply good data management practices so that the research outputs produced are available to the global research community and to society at large, according to the principles of Open Science, Reproducible Research, and FAIR.”
Given the Vision, we then worked on what our Mission should be, taking our organisational environment, resources and competences into account. Which areas should the focus of our activities be on? What are overarching objectives to work towards for these areas? This resulted in us defining three core areas: Support, Training and Collaboration. For each of these, we formulated high level objectives, as well as functional statements about what we should focus our activities on to work towards the objectives.
Here is an example mission statement:
Support: Swedish life science researchers shall have access to data management support to be able to manage their research data according to international best practice.
- Develop procedures for providing efficient data management support to research projects throughout the research data lifecycle
- Provide data management planning knowledge and resources and tools for research projects
- Provide support and resources and tools for data submission to recommended community deposition databases
- Provide support and resources and tools to enable reproducible research
For several years, our Vision & Mission was the only guiding “strategy” for the team activities. Only later on, when the team grew to become even bigger and our activities expanded, did we formulate a full strategy for our operations. The full Vision & Mission statement can be found in our strategy document.
ELIXIR Sweden: training activity strategy
Node: ELIXIR Sweden
Authors: Elin Kronander and Niclas Jareborg, heads of data management
Topics: Gaps to action, Why strategy
A strategy can help a team move from first come, first served to more deliberate choices. This is especially useful when requests grow faster than available capacity.
For a few years we had developed and delivered a recurring 3-day course; Introduction to Data Management Practices. We also participated in collaborations and gave on-demand workshops and seminars. The team had many ideas of what new kind of training materials and activities we needed to develop. The external requests for training collaborations and workshops were more than we had capacity for. We were in a first-come, first-served situation but we wanted to reach a situation where we made conscious decisions and choices. We decided to create a short strategy document for our training and outreach activities and a workplan for the upcoming year.
Two of the data stewards in our team were also involved in training coordination for our node and they were tasked to lead the development of a training strategy document. They organised a few brainstorming sessions with the entire team. It was followed by a co-working session between the two leads where a draft was written. The entire team reviewed and gave feedback and after a few iterations the strategy was approved. It was made publicly available through the SciLifeLab Data repository and is revised yearly.
The strategy has helped us decide which training activities we engage in and when we should decline without engaging in long discussions. It also facilitates long-term planning of activities as well as planning for yearly improvements and continuous development of new training materials.