Large research collaborations or clusters often require harmonized approaches to managing the research data acquired in individual projects. For Collaborative Research Centers (Sonderforschungsbereiche, SFB) funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), dedicated INF projects (Informationsinfrastruktur-Teilprojekte) handle the infrastructure and data management needs of the collaboration. As such, SFBs and their INF projects serve as prime use cases for testing data sharing, standardized processes, and metadata annotation.

The Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformationen (DINI) recently organized a workshop on best practices and challenges in data management for Collaborative Research Centers. Ksenia Krooß, a data steward for NFDI4BIOIMAGE at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, presented a poster on NFDI4BIOIMAGE and shared her experiences from local INF projects at HHU Düsseldorf. Additionally, Susanne Kunis delivered a presentation on utilizing OMERO—a bioimaging-specific research data management system—as the central imaging management platform in the SFB 1557 “Functional Plasticity Encoded by Cellular Membrane Networks” as part of the work in the Information Infrastructure for BioImage Data (I3D:bio) project.

The workshop provided an excellent and collegial opportunity for RDM professionals involved in SFB projects and state-level RDM initiatives (FDM Landesinitiativen) to exchange ideas and experiences.